Page:A Voyage of Discovery and Research in the Southern and Antarctic Regions Vol 2.djvu/440

396 or small island crowned with a few trees: the margin next the town is flanked by sandstone.

The country between Oatlands and Tunbridge is slightly undulating, with park-like plains, glowing with the warm golden yellow tint of the black wattle (a mimosa, and the emblem of the island), and the equally bright and deep orange blossom of the gorse or furze, which perfumes the whole atmosphere with its sweetness and fragrance.

Quamby's Bluff, three thousand five hundred feet in height, is seen from Tunbridge, bearing N.W., and to the eastward lay the Salt-pan Plains, from which large quantities of salt are collected.

Blackman's River crosses the road to Ross.

An alluvial plain of reddish gravel and other transported materials, containing agglomerated pebbles, agates, and cornelians, extends between Ross and Campbell Town. Greenstone is the prevailing rock, in which very curious nodules, from the size of a pea to that of a hazel nut, are imbedded. These agate-like minerals, from their concentric laminated structure, present in their markings externally the appearance of an eye, more especially when polished, and they are frequently found aggregated in clusters in their rocky matrix. Ben Lomond, rising to the height of five thousand feet, is seen from this. I saw here two eagle hawks (Aquila fucosa) soaring overhead, the first I met with, as the bird is becoming scarce in the colony; and that beautiful and elegant species, the white hawk (Aster albus), is, I much fear, destined ere long to become extinct in the island. I saw only one, on Tasman's Peninsula, during my stay in the country. Elizabeth River passes by Campbell Town, from which Quamby's Bluff has a very conspicuous appearance.

A well cultivated agricultural country lies between Campbell Town and Epping Forest, in which some large estates are situated, with well trimmed fields and enclosures and rich soil, equal in appearance to any I have seen