Page:Narrative of a Visit to the Australian Colonies.djvu/154

118 branches at many feet above the ground. The sides of the Peak are clothed with shrubs, among which are, a low dense species of Richea and Cystanthe sprengelloides. The upper part is scantily covered with herbage, and is rocky: it commands a very extensive and remarkable view. The north coast is visible near Port Sorell. The Cradle Mountain, Barn Bluff, and lower parts of the Western Tier, bound the prospect on the east. Numerous mountains are visible to the south; and, on the west, the sea is seen, through a few openings among the hills. The whole, except the sea, the projecting rocks, and a few small, open tracts of land, such as the Hampshire Hills, Goderich Plains, &c. is one vast sombre forest; the open parts of which, having from 10 to 30 trees per acre, are not distinguishable from those that are denser, except in colour.—The dogs belonging to some of the company, killed a Black Opossum, and we destroyed two small snakes, with minute, venom-fangs. Two Wedge-tailed Eagles, called in the colony Eagle Hawks, shewed a disposition to carry off a little dog; but he kept close to us for safety. In approaching the Peak, we crossed some wet land, covered with Bog Moss, Sphagnum, of the same kind that occurs in England.

29th. Notwithstanding it is now midsummer, the weather is cold with hail and sleet. The climate here is much colder than that of the coast. We rode to a plain called, The Race Course; on which there is a hut, from whence one of the native Blacks was shot last year, by a young man who, when alone, observed one of them approaching slyly and beckoning to his fellows in the adjacent wood. A hut in the neighbourhood had been attacked by them a few days before, and a man killed; several others had also been speared. The young man that shot the Black became depressed, almost to derangement, at the idea of having prematurely terminated the existence of a fellow-creature.

30th. We remained at Chilton till to-day, for the purpose of having a meeting with the few servants of the Company. In the afternoon, we had also a religious interview with three men at a place named Wey-bridge; after which we returned to the Hampshire Hills.