Page:Narrative of a Visit to the Australian Colonies.djvu/202

160 ourselves of a path that is nearly obliterated, which was used by the workmen, when laying a watercourse from the breast of the mountain, for the purpose of supplying Hobart Town with water. This path led through a forest of Tree-ferns, surmounted by Myrtle, &c. Nearer the top, we had to pass a large tract of tumbled basalt. The upper parts of many of the stones were split off, probably by the alternations of frost and heat. A few patches of snow were still remaining.

The top of the mountain is rather hollow, sloping toward Birches Bay, in the direction of which, a stream of excellent water flows. The ground is swampy, with rocks and stony hills. Astelia alpina, Glichenia alpina, Drosera arcturi, several remarkable shrubby Asters, a prostrate species of Leptospermum, Exocarpos humifusus, a dense bushy Richea, and several mountain shrubs, of the Epacris tribe, are scattered in the swamps, and among the rocks. Two Snipes flew up from a marsh, in which there was a frog with a voice much like that of the English Red Grouse.

We ascended the highest portions of the mountain on the west and south, from which the view is extremely fine. It commands the whole of the south-east portion of V. D. Land, with its numerous bays, peninsulas, and adjacent, small islands, the singular outlines of which may be seen upon one of the ma£s at the end of this volume. The ocean forms the horizon, from the westward of the mouth of D'Entrecasteaux Channel, and to the southward, and as far to the north-east as about St. Patricks Head. The atmosphere was rather milky to the north, so as not to leave the horizon very distinct in that direction. To the westward we thought we could recognise the Peak of Teneriffe, and some of the mountains near Macquarie Harbour, Port Davey, and the South Cape. Hobart Town, Sorell Town, and the cultivated lands, with the houses of the settlers about Richmond, New Norfolk, and Hamilton, along with the courses of the rivers Derwent and Huon, were striking objects. The green patches of cultivated land on Browns River, and in various other places, in the recesses of the "bush," proved interestingly, the powers of industry in subduing the forest.