32 NOTES ON THE RIVER GORDON. 



Entering the river, its extensive shallows on either 

 side are broken by rushes and driftwood, forming pleas- 

 ing foregrounds to the glorious panorama which 

 stretches from north-east to west. This is a scene to 

 be remembered, if caught under favourable conditions — 

 a clear earl) morning and a dead calm. The great West 

 Coast Range, terminating here, shows Mounts Jukes, 

 Darwin, Smell, and Strahan, grouped up in great gran- 

 deur, while farther westward the harbour is closed in 

 by Grummet and Sarah Islands, and the distant back- 

 ground of the wall-like ranges terminating at Table 

 Head. 



The general scenery of the Gordon represents high 

 gorges, densely wooded to the water's edge, with long 

 reaches and beautiful bends. There are stretches of open 

 country in parts, but for 24 miles, until the River 

 Franklin is reached, it retains the character I have indi- 

 cated. 



There is a fine outcrop of limestone at Limekiln 

 Reach, 12 miles from the river entrance, which in the 

 early days was quarried and burned by a party from the 

 Sarah Island establishment. 



About two miles further along brings us to Butler's 

 Island, a peculiar rock close to the eastern side of the 

 river. It received its name from the officers of the Sarah 

 Island establishment, Captain Butler, of die 40th Regi- 

 ment, being one of its best and most energetic comman- 

 dants. The high rock to the west of the island I named 

 Cuthbertsor 's Head, after Captain Cuthbertson, who 

 was the first commandant of Sarah Island, and who was 

 drowned at the entrance to the River Gordon. 



Pining, as carried on in the Gordon and vicinity to- 

 day, is mostly confined to the creeks and small rivers 

 which flow into the main stream. All the pine timber 

 which grew so abundantly at one time along its banks, 

 and in the adjacent fiats, has been worked out years ago, 

 and it will take a century at least for the young forest 

 trees to mature and be fit for use. 



Among the surroundings of the higher waters of the 

 River Franklin, in the vicinity of the Frenchman Range, 

 where the country is excessively steep and rugged — 

 roads are quite out of the question, and the work of 

 pining is both difficult and dangerous, most of the pine 



