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246 and unnecessarily destroyed, might soon return to their old quarters.

, afterwards called, was to be selected. Sergeant Wight was sent to report upon it on November 2d, 1831, upon the special recommendation of the site to Government by Captain Jackson, and named by the Aborigines' Committee before Colonel Arthur, September 28th, 1831. In October the Launceston Independent has this notice:—"The Natives, when caught, are to be placed upon an island in the immediate vicinity of the one at present occupied as a depôt for the Aborigines, known by the name of Great Island, being about fifty miles in length, Gun Carriage Island being too circumscribed to afford a livelihood for those placed thereon."

The island is forty miles long, and from twelve to eighteen broad. It rises boldly from the sea, and has some prominent mountain ranges. Strzelecki, to the south-west, is 2,550 feet high. Three peaks to the east are called the Patriarchs. They are near the Babel Isles, where Flinders was so confounded by the noise of sea-birds. A massive breastwork of hills opposes a defiant, abrupt front to the prevailing west wind. Like the rest of the Bass's Strait Isles, it is substantially of granite, though the sedimentary primary rocks are not wanting. The metamorphic, especially mica schist, is in great force. In this respect its conformation is similar to the northern coast of Tasmania. Precious stones have been reported, especially diamonds of good size; but the lapidary would not estimate them very highly. A magnificent crystal was discovered in the ancient days on the top of a mountain. It was two feet in height, and had the appearance of seven pillars. So great a curiosity was presented to Governor Sorell upon his departure from the colony in 1824.

But however attractive to the lover of the picturesque, or the student of geology, it had no charms to the farmer or grazier. Without rivers, it had vast morasses. Without fine forests, it was overrun with grass-tree (Xanthorrhoea) scrub and tea-tree thickets. Without alluvial deposits of good soil, the interior was rock, where it was not sand or swamp.

The place chosen for the settlement was called The Lagoons, as to the rear of a dreary tea-tree (Melaleuca) scrub, nearly bordering the sandy shore, was a salt lagoon, or shallow lake. Fresh