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Rh 3 train for Hobart, which we reached at eight o'clock in the evening. The Launceston and Western Railway is of broad gauge, but the line to Hobart is a narrow one (three feet six inches), on account of the heavy work in the mountains through which its route is laid. As long as the daylight lasted we had a beautiful panorama, the scene changing at every turn of the sinuous track. Occasionally we had glimpses of the old carriage-road built by the convicts, and were impressed with its solidity and the thoroughness of the work of which it is evidence. It is said that the road cost more than a railway would at present; and I have no doubt, after seeing it, that this was the case.

"We asked if any aboriginals could be seen along the route, and were told that the last Tasmanian aboriginal, Truganini, or Lalla Rookh, died in 1876, and the last Tasmanian man in 1869. When the island was first occupied by the English, there were four or five thousand natives upon it; there was incessant war between them and the whites until 1832, when the greater number of the blacks had been killed, only a few hundreds remaining. In 1854 there were only sixteen of them alive, and these gradually died off.

"It is said that when the English landed in Tasmania they mistook the friendly signs of the natives for hostile ones, and the mistake led the commanding officer to order his men to fire on the group that had assembled on the beach. Fifty natives were killed on this occasion, and thus a needless war was begun.

"Of course we have been invited to visit gold-mines and other places where valuable minerals are found; they tell us that Tasmania contains the most valuable tin-mine in the world, its annual yield being worth nearly a million dollars. It was discovered in 1872 by a man who was regarded by his neighbors as more than half a lunatic. For years he sought for tin among the mountains, suffering all sorts of hardships and privations; and when at last he found the desired deposit, his assertion that he had done so was not believed. He was nicknamed 'Philosopher Smith,' and had great difficulty in securing attention to his discovery and raising the necessary capital for working the mine. Like most discoverers, he did not reap the reward for what he found, as he was compelled to sell his shares in the mine while they were at a very low price. A share originally costing thirty shillings was worth £80 a few years later.

"A few miles before reaching Hobart we came to the banks of the Derwent, the river on which the capital stands. It is a beautiful stream flowing down from the interior mountains, and its valley is said to be