wards the ground, stepped over one which was lying
asleep among some black sticks, and would have passed on without
observing it, had not its rustling and loud hiss attracted his attention
the moment afterwards.

He determined on taking him alive, in order to try the effect of his bite
upon a hawk which was at that time in the sloop. In the contest, he
turned round and bit himself severely; in a few minutes after which he
was mastered. His exertions, however, were still vigorous, and Mr. Bass
expected, as he began to recover himself, that they would increase; but
in less than ten minutes he died. Having never before known a snake of
this size to be killed by a few very slight blows with a stick so rotten
as scarcely to bear the weight of its own blow, he was at a loss to
conceive how death had so suddenly succeeded so much vigour in an animal
so tenacious of life. Was it possible that his own bite could have been
the cause? When, three hours afterwards, the skin was stripped off, the
flesh for some distance round the marks of his teeth, was found inflamed
and discoloured.

The account of the Derwent river being now closed, and the whole of what
was learned of Van Diemen's land related, it may not be improper, says
Mr. Bass, to point out the manner in which this country and New South
Wales appear to differ in their most essential quality, that of their
soil.

In adjusting their comparative fertility, the contrasted disposition of
their soils is much more prominent than any inequality in their quantity.
They are poor countries; but, as far as the eye of discovery has yet
penetrated into either, the cultivable soil of the latter is found lying
in a few distinct patches of limited extent, and of varying quality;
while the soil of the former, being more equally spread, those spots of
abundant richness, or large wilds of unimproveable sterility, are much
less frequently seen.

Although Van Diemen's land seems to possess few or none of those vast
depths of soil with which the happiest spots of New South Wales are
blessed; yet it seldom sickens the heart of its traveller with those
extensive tracts which at once disarm industry, and leave the warmest
imagination without one beguiling project.

In point of productive soil Mr. Bass gives the preponderance to Van
Diemen's land.

In one particular, which to the inhabitants of a civilized country is of
the utmost importance, both countries are but too much alike: each is
amp