Page:Narrative of a Visit to the Australian Colonies.djvu/60

28 We remained in the district of the Clyde, which is a branch of the Derwent, till the 19th, and in the course of this time visited the recently laid-out towns of Bothwell, on the upper, and Hamilton, on the lower part of the river, as well as many of the settlers in the surrounding country, and on another branch of the Derwent, called the Ouse.

Bothwell has already a small Episcopal place of worship, built of stone, an inn of two stories, of brick, about thirty houses, of wood, and a small jail, of the same material. Several of the settlers in the vicinity are persons of respectability from various parts of the United Kingdom; a few of them are remarkable for their piety: two have water-mills a little above the town. Hamilton, at this time consisted of a water-mill and about ten houses, occupied chiefly by artizans of various kinds, who are a great accommodation to the settlers of the surrounding district; and such of them as are sober and industrious make a respectable livelihood.

The country about Bothwell is hilly. Basalt is the prevailing rock, but some of the hills are sandstone; and near the river in a place below the town, the sandstone forms projections; under which, prisoners who had escaped into the woods, and who in this country are termed Bush-rangers, formerly found concealment. These people plundered the settlers and committed other outrages; but most of these outlaws have been captured or shot. Many of the hills about Hamilton are also basaltic, some of them are remarkably red, and bare of wood at the top, which is often of a vivid green, from being covered with Chick-weed of the same species that is troublesome in the gardens of England. She-oak—Casuarina quadrivalvis, is the prevailing tree on these hills: it seldom grows in contact: its trunk is about 10 ft. high, and 5 ft. round; its head spherical, 10 or 15 ft. in diameter, and consisting of pendulous, leafless, green, jointed twigs, resembling horse-tail weed. From the neighbourhood of Hamilton a range of rocky mountains is visible to the west, beyond which the country is high and little known, and toward the centre of the island, a high craggy mountain, called the Peak of Teneriffe, is very conspicuous. Among the hills, and on the tops of some of them are level tracts,