An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales Volume II Part 14

It was evident, that land so much exposed to the violence of extensive oceans must have undergone some very material changes, by the incessant attrition of their vast waves. Two of the isles, either from this or a more sudden cause, have so far deviated from their centre, that their parallel strata form angles of between sixteens and eighteen degrees in one instance, and in another between twenty-five and thirty degrees, with the horizontal line. But it is difficult to explain, by the action of water, how a large block of the white stone without strata is caused to overhang an almost perpendicular corner of one of the islands, which beneath that block consists of the dark coloured stone lying in strata.

De Witt's Isles, (so named, probably, by Tasman) twelve in number, are of various sizes. The two largest are from three to four miles in circuit.

Their sides are steep, but their height is inferior to that of the main.

The largest is the lowest. The smaller isles are little more than large lumps of rock, of which that named by Captain Cook the mew stone is the southernmost. Their aspect, like that of the main, bespeaks extreme sterility; but, superior to the greater part of it, they produce a continued covering of brush; and upon the sloping sides of some of their gullies are a few stinted, half dead gum trees.

They could not account for the vestiges of fires that appeared upon the two inner large islands; the innermost in particular, which lay at some distance from the nearest point of the main, was burnt in patches upon different parts of it. It must have been effected either by lightning, or by the hand of man; but it was so much unlike the usual effects of the former, that, with all its difficulties, they chose to attribute it to the latter cause.

A great smoke that arose at the back of one of the bights showed the main to be inhabited; but they could not suppose the people of this place to be furnished with canoes, when those of Adventure Bay, in their neighbourhood, were unprovided with them. Nothing, therefore, was left to their choice, but to allow that they might transport themselves over, either upon logs of wood, or by swimming across: and, as the most probable reward of such an exertion would be the capture of birds, whilst breeding, or the seizure of their eggs, the utility of spreading fires in facilitating such operations is obvious.

The south cape may be easily distinguished from any other projection in its vicinity. Besides being the southernmost, it is a promontory making like a foreland, and sloping very gradually as it runs towards the sea, where it ends in a perpendicular cliff.

About sunset the fresh NW wind died away suddenly; and a strong squall from the westward, with thunder, lightning, and heavy rain, soon carried them round the south cape, and, by dark, brought them off what was formerly called Storm Bay, where they hauled to the wind with the sloop's head up the bay, intending, in the morning, to proceed by this Storm Bay pa.s.sage into the Derwent river.

The night was squally, and by day light the next morning (the 14th), it was found that the vessel had drifted across the mouth of Storm Bay, or more properly Storm Bay Pa.s.sage. Tasman's Head, its eastern point, bore NE distant three miles. Being too far to leeward to fetch up the pa.s.sage, and the gale continuing, they bore away round Tasman's Head, and hauled up along sh.o.r.e for Adventure Bay.

Nothing remarkable was observed about Tasman's Head, except two small islands lying off it, at the distance of half or three quarters of a mile; and close to them were the two conical basaltic rocks named by Captain Furneaux the Friars. The vegetation upon the inner most of the two small islands had been burnt in a manner similar to that on the De Witt's isles. If it were possible to account for those fires in any other way than by the agency of man, it would be more satisfactory, than to suppose that people, always believed to be without canoes, had crossed over from a rather steep and rocky head, to an island equally rocky, but more steep.

Having pa.s.sed Fluted Cape, a fine piece of basalt, and Penguin island, they fetched up under Cape Frederick Henry, the north point of Adventure Bay; but, as the wind blew strong directly off it, and the sloop was light and leewardly, they bore away round the Cape Frederick Henry, hauling upon the north side of it into the bay of that name, purposing to go into the Derwent river, discovered a few years since by Mr. Hayes, master of the ship _Duke_, of Bengal: but, finding that they were likely to lose ground by tacking, they stood into Henshaw's bay (so named by Hayes), and were greatly surprised to find that, instead of its being a mere shallow bight, as laid down in Mr. Hayes's chart, it extended many miles to the northward. The whole now bears the name of Frederick Henry Bay; that given by Hayes is lost. In this very extensive bay they remained a week, traversing and measuring various parts of its sh.o.r.es.

The surrounding country was found to be miserable, presenting but very little that was fit even for pasturage, and none good enough for cultivation, except near a shallow lagoon on the west side, on the border of which were seven or eight hundred acres of low ground, of a black mould, rather sandy, which might be cultivated with great advantage.

Contiguous to the best part, was a large fresh water swamp, overgrown with reeds and bulrushes.

In the evening of the 21st they entered the mouth of the Derwent.

In pa.s.sing between two islands, the heads of the seaweed, which, from its size, is named the Gigantic, were showing themselves above the surface in six or eight fathoms water: a diminutive plant when compared with those of the kind seen in higher lat.i.tudes, but of vast magnitude in comparison with the generality of seaweeds.

On their various movements in the Derwent, Mr. Ba.s.s is silent, confining his narrative to a general account of what he learned and saw of the neighbouring country.

If the Derwent river have any claim to respectability, it is indebted for it more to the paucity of inlets into Van Diemen's land, than to any intrinsic merits of its own. After a sleepy course of not more than twenty-five or twenty-seven miles to the NW it falls into Frederick Henry Bay. Its breadth there is two miles and a quarter, and its depth ten fathoms. A few hundred yards above its mouth, it is joined, on the west side, by the Storm Bay Pa.s.sage, and this union makes an island of that slip of land which is Adventure Bay. This island, the Derwent river, and the Storm Bay Pa.s.sage, were the discovery of Mr. Hayes, of which he made a chart; wherein it was found, by the minute examination of the whole scene which it now underwent, that the smallest runs had been magnified into rivers, and coves into bays and ports. Such glaring errors could not be suffered to exist; but the name, where it was possible, was retained, though the geographical term was necessarily altered.

This dull lifeless stream, the Derwent, is so little affected by the tides, that its navigation is extremely tedious with a foul wind. It takes its way through a country that on the east and north sides it hilly, on the west and north mountainous. The hills to the eastward arise immediately from the banks; but the mountains to the westward have retired to the distance of a few miles from the water, and have left in their front hilly land similar to that on the east side. All the hills are very thinly set with light timber, chiefly short she oaks; but are admirably covered with thick nutritious gra.s.s, in general free from brush or patches of shrubs. The soil in which it grows is a black vegetable mould, deep only in the valleys, frequently very shallow, with occasionally a small mixture of sand or small stones. Many large tracts of land appear cultivable both for maize and wheat, but which, as pasture land, would be excellent.

The hills descend with such gentle slopes, that the valleys between them are extensive and flat. Several contain an indeterminate depth of rich soil, capable of supporting the most exhausting vegetation, and are tolerably well watered by chains of small ponds, or occasional drains, which empty themselves into the river by a cove or creek.

One mountain to the west, lying about three miles from the water, and so remarkably conspicuous as to be seen from every part of the Derwent and its vicinity, Mr. Ba.s.s ascended; and he was much surprised to find it abounding with fine tall gum-tree timber uncommonly straight.

The sh.o.r.e on the east side of the river, proceeding up, is covered with a good but shallow soil, and lightly wooded; cultivable for the greater part with any kind of grain, and the whole fit for pasturage, though, perhaps, not sufficiently watered for large cattle which require much drink.

On the west side the country rises too suddenly into stony hills to be in general so good as in most other places. It would, however, afford tolerable pasturage; and a few patches of eighty or one hundred acres each were excellent arable land.

The sh.o.r.e here, as in many other parts of the river, exhibited signs of internal or subterraneous disturbance. The strata of cliffs were broken and disjoined, lying sloping in different directions. Near a small point several pieces of petrified wood, and lumps of stone of every kind and every size, were enveloped, or rather stuck into the matter of the rock, which, although in colour much like a yellow tinged clay, yet had the usual rough porous surface peculiar to substances that have been in a state of fusion. It was here, as in other places, hard, but did not scintillate with steel, and was divided, by lines of a still harder iron-tinged stone, into squares and parallelograms of various sizes. From one of these intersecting lines, Mr. Ba.s.s took a small lump of this ferruginous stone, that seemed to have bubbled up, and to have hardened in the form of an ill-shaped bunch of small grapes. Some of the neighbouring cliffs, for several yards, were formed into basaltic columns.

In walking across one of the steep heads between two small bays, he met with a large deep hole in the ground, that appeared to have been occasioned by the falling-in of the earth which had formerly occupied its s.p.a.ce. Its extent was about twenty-two yards by seventeen; its depth perhaps sixty feet. The sides were not excavated, but rather smooth and perpendicular. They were rocks of the same yellow tinge as those of the sh.o.r.e. A little surf that washed up within it showed a communication with the river, by a narrow subterraneous pa.s.sage of some ten or sixteen feet in height, and, according to the distance of the hole from the edge of the cliff, about thirty-five yards in length. Appearances seemed to agree, that the period at which this earth fell in could not be very remote.

Continuing on the west side from Point William to Shoal Point (places named by Mr. Hayes), the land is too stony upon the hills for cultivation, but is proper for pasturage. The valleys are, as usual, adapted to grain.

The land round Prince of Wales's Cove is rather level, and frequently clayey: the worst of it produces excellent food for cattle, even up to the foot of the high mountain lying at its back. Being a stiff close soil, it is perhaps adapted to the growth of grape vines, rather than of grain. About three hundred acres of open ground, called by Mr. Hayes King George's Plains (could this have been in derision?) seem well calculated for this purpose, and for this only.

The land at the head of Risdon creek, on the east side, seems preferable to any other on the banks of the Derwent. The creek runs winding between two steep hills, and ends in a chain of ponds that extends into a fertile valley of great beauty. For half a mile above the head of the creek, the valley is contracted and narrow; but the soil is extremely rich, and the fields are well covered with gra.s.s. Beyond this it suddenly expands, and becomes broad and flat at the bottom, whence arise long gra.s.sy slopes, that by a gentle but increasing ascent continue to mount the hills on each side, until they are hidden from the view by the woods of large timber which overhang their summits. With this handsome disposition of the ground, the valley extends several miles to the SE in the figure of a small segment of a circle. The tops of its hills, though stony, produce abundance of tall timber, which, as it descends the slopes, diminishes in size, and thins off to a few scattered she oaks and gum trees, interspersed with small coppices of the beautiful flowering fern.

The soil along the bottom, and to some distance up the slopes, is a rich vegetable mould, apparently hardened by a small mixture of clay, which grows a large quant.i.ty of thick, juicy gra.s.s, and some few patches of close underwood.

Herdman's Cove, (so named by Lieutenant Flinders from the surrounding country) above Risdon Creek, has a large tract of good pasture land lying at its head. The country, which is unusually thin of timber, is finely rounded into gra.s.sy hills of various moderate ascent. The soil consists of more brown earth than black vegetable mould; upon the sides and tops of the hills, it is frequently stony; but in some of the valleys rich and fine, and capable of profitable cultivation. A chain of ponds intersecting the hills afforded an almost continual stream of fresh water into the head of the Cove.

As it was not supposed that the sloop could proceed above Herdsman's Cove, Mr. Ba.s.s and his companion went up the river in her boat, imagining that one tide would enable them to reach its source; but in this they were mistaken, falling, as they believed, several miles short of it.

Where the returning tide met them, the water had become perfectly fresh; the stream was two hundred and thirty yards in breadth, and in depth three fathoms. It was wedged in between high gra.s.sy hills that descended to the river upon a quick slope, and had a grand appearance. But the only cultivable land that they saw was some few breaks in the hills, and some narrow slips that were found at their foot close to the water's side.

In their way up, a human voice saluted them from the hills; on which they landed, carrying with them one of several swans which they had just shot.

Having nearly reached the summit, two females, with a short covering hanging loose from their shoulders, suddenly appeared at some little distance before them, s.n.a.t.c.hed up each a small basket, and scampered off.

A man then presented himself, and suffered them to approach him without any signs of fear or distrust. He received the swan joyfully, seeming to esteem it a treasure.

His language was unintelligible to them, as was theirs to him, although they addressed him in several of the dialects of New South Wales, and some few of the most common words of the South Sea islands. With some difficulty they made him comprehend their wish to see his place of residence. He pointed over the hills, and proceeded onwards; but his pace was slow and wandering, and he often stopped under pretence of having lost the track; which led them to suspect that his only aim was to amuse and tire them out. Judging, then, that in persisting to follow him they must lose the remaining part of the flood tide, which was much more valuable to them than the sight of his hut could be, they parted from him in great friendship.

The most probable reason of his unwillingness to be their guide seemed, his not having a male companion near him; and his fearing that if he took them to his women, their charms might induce them to run off with them--a jealousy very common with the natives of the continent.

He was a short, slight made man of a middle age, with a countenance more expressive of benignity and intelligence than of that ferocity or stupidity which generally characterised the other natives; and his features were less flattened, or negro-like, than theirs. His face was blackened, and the top of his head was plastered with red earth. His hair was either naturally short and close, or had been rendered so by burning, and, although short and stiffly curled, they did not think it woolly.* He was armed with two ill made spears of solid wood.

[* Mr. Raven, on his return to England in the _Buffalo_, putting into Adventure Bay, close by where this man was seen, cut off some undoubted wool from the head of a native that he fell in with there. This circ.u.mstance was unknown to Mr. Ba.s.s.]

No part of their dress attracted his attention, except the red silk handkerchief round their necks. Their fire arms were to him objects neither of curiosity nor fear.

This was the first man they had spoken with in Van Diemen's land, and his frank and open deportment led them not only to form a favourable opinion of the disposition of its inhabitants, but to conjecture that if the country was peopled in the usual numbers, he would not have been the only one whom they would have met. A circ.u.mstance which corroborated this supposition was, that in the excursions made by Mr. Ba.s.s into the country, having seldom any other society than his two dogs, he could have been no great object of dread to a people ignorant of the effects of fire arms, and would certainly have been hailed by any one who might have seen him.

They fell in with many huts along the different sh.o.r.es of the river, of the same bad construction as those of Port Dalrymple, but with fewer heaps of mussel sh.e.l.ls lying near them. The natives of this place, probably, draw the princ.i.p.al part of their food from the woods; the bones of small animals, such as opossums, squirrels, kangaroo rats, and bandicoots, were numerous round their deserted fire-places; and the two spears which they saw in the hands of the man were similar to those used for hunting in other parts. Many trees also were observed to be notched.

No canoes were ever seen, nor any tree so barked as to answer that purpose. And yet all the islands in Frederick Henry Bay had evidently been visited.

Besides the small quadrupeds already mentioned, they observed the grey and red kangaroo, but not in any numbers, and once they heard the tread of an emu.

The feathered tribes were apparently similar to those of Port Dalrymple.

Here again they daily ate their swan, the flocks of which even exceeded those that they had before met with.

The most formidable among the reptiles was the black snake with venomous fangs, and so much in colour resembling a burnt stick, that a close inspection only could detect the difference. Mr. Ba.s.s once, with his eyes cautiously directed towards the ground, stepped over one which was lying asleep among some black sticks, and would have pa.s.sed 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. Ba.s.s 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. Ba.s.s, 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 quant.i.ty.

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. Ba.s.s 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 amply stored with water for the common purposes of life; but deficient in those large intersections of it which, in other more fortunate countries, so much facilitate the operations of man, and lead commerce to the door of even the most inland farmer.

Two rivers only, Port Dalrymple and the Derwent, are known to descend from Van Diemen's land; and by Point St Vincent possibly there may be a third. But two rivers, or even three, bear but a scanty proportion to the bulk of the island.