Page:The Boy Travellers in Australasia.djvu/524

500 exceedingly picturesque. Hobart justified the description which our friend at Launceston gave us; it stands on seven hills, with a larger hill, called Knocklofty, behind it; and behind this hill again is Mount Wellington, 4166 feet high. The harbor is deep and capacious, and the navigation is so easy that ships often come in without pilots.

"Until 1881 this place was called Hobart Town, or Hobarton; in that year the name was officially changed to Hobart.

"The day after our arrival we climbed to the top of Mount Wellington, and were well repaid for the fatigue of the ascent by the magnificent view it afforded. It was landscape and seascape together, and both extensive and picturesque. Water and land were spread below us as on a map, and we looked away towards the Southern Pole, and wondered what would be encountered if we journeyed in that direction.

"Hobart is a famous resort of Australians, who come here to escape the heat of summer. Its climate is delightful, and if all that the inhabitants claim is true, the Australians who come here have no reason to complain. Doctor Bronson says he has been told that the ladies of Tasmania are so charming that the friends of an Australian bachelor tremble for him whenever he decides to spend the summer at Hobart. But the Doctor says the friends of a Tasmanian bachelor might be equally