killed. The skin also of these animals
constitutes to them an important article of trade.

It was the 15th before we had completed for the present our survey of
this part, owing as I have before observed, to the constant bad weather,
which was doubly felt by the boats in which all the materials for the
chart of this neighbourhood were collected.

CIRCULAR HEAD.

We now examined the coast to Circular Head, under the north side of which
we anchored in 7 fathoms on the morning of the 18th, after spending a day
under the South-East corner off Robbins Island, where we found good
anchorage in westerly winds. Making too free with the shore with a low
sun ahead, we grounded for a short time on a shingle spit extending off
the low point North-West from Circular Head. Three quarters of a mile
East-North-East from this point is a dangerous rocky ledge just awash, on
which several vessels have run. By keeping the bluff extreme of Circular
Head open it may always be avoided.

The latter is a singular cliffy mass of trappean rock, rising abruptly
from the water till its flattened crest reaches an elevation of 490 feet.

This strange projection stands on the eastern side of a small peninsula.
On the parts broken off where it joins the sandy bay on the north side,
we found the compass perfectly useless, from the increased quantity of
magnetic iron ore they contain.

It is on this point that the headquarters of the Van Diemen's Land
Agricultural Company are established under the charge of a Mr. Curr,
whose house with its extensive out-buildings and park, occupying some
rising ground on the northern part of the point, greets the eye of the
stranger, to whom the reflection is forcibly suggested by the sight, that
the natural graces of the scene, must soon yield to the restraining
regularity with which man marks his conquests from the wilderness. The
name of this faint memento of home was, we were informed, Hyfield; a
straggling village occupies a flat to the left, and in the bay on the
south side of the head, which is the general anchorage, is a store with a
substantial jetty.

English grasses have been sown at this establishment with great success,
one acre of ground now feeding four sheep, instead of as before, four
acres being required for one; the improvement in the grass was also made
evident by the excellent condition in which all the stock appeared to be.

HYFIELD.

The garden at Hyfield was quite in keeping with the othe