Page:Narrative of a Visit to the Australian Colonies.djvu/191

1833.] the use of strong drink.—The police clerk spoke to us courteously: we were about to invite the people of the neighbourhood to a temperance meeting, and when we returned, he was ill, from the practice of dram drinking: he died in the night, and was a corpse upon the premises at the time the meeting was held!

In the houses of most of the prosperous settlers, from whatever rank they may have risen, piano-fortes are to be seen. Next to drinking and smoking, they seem to be resorted to, to relieve the mind from that sense of vacuity, which ought to lead it to seek to be filled with heavenly good; and thus these instruments of music are made a means of truly injurious dissipation.

Spring commences early in Tasmania, and is marked by the opening of many pretty flowers, and the blossoming of the trees and shrubs; but as the latter are universally evergreens, it is not marked by the change so striking in England, except in gardens, in which the fruit-trees from Europe, rest more regularly than in Great Britain, and do not appear to be disposed to grow till spring is fully set in. The advance of spring was, however, very pleasant on our journey; in which we had now and then, fine and extended views, that were rendered the more interesting by the continuity of the forest, generally limiting observation to a small space. One of the objects occasionally visible, from the South Esk to St. Peters Pass, was Ben Lomond, which presents a remarkably castellated bluff to the south, and is represented in the annexed sketch, taken near the residence of James Crcar, on the South Esk. This mountain is said to be volcanic, and to have a lake, in an extinguished crater, at the top.

Considerable quantities of gum have been exported from V. D. Land. One kind resembling Kino, is the produce of various species of Eucalyptus; the best is from the White Gum, which is probably E. resinifera: it is collected for a shilling a pound in the colony. A species of Acacia, called the Black Wattle, probably Acacia affinis, produces, a gum inferior to Gum Arabic, but which is said to be used in sizing silk goods: it is collected for three-pence a pound.