189 



LAND ROUTES FOR EXPLORATION OF THE 



WESTERN COUNTRY. 



By T. Stephens, M.A., F.G.S. 



Read at a Meeting of the Royal Society of Tasmania, 10th 



August, 1896. 



As in the legendary tales of old, and the true histories of 

 modern times, the heroes of exploration and adventure turn 

 their faces to the setting sun ; so those who seek to develop 

 the comparatively little known mineral resources of Tasmania 

 are turning to the West as to a Promised Land, and the time 

 seems Opportune for bringing under the notice of the Royal 

 Society a subject in which the whole community is interested, 

 whether it be regarded from an economic or a scientific point 

 of view. 



An irregular line drawn from Port Sorell in a southerly 

 direction, between the 146th and 147th meridians, by the 

 head waters of the River Mersey and the ranges west 

 of Lake St. Clair, and along the western slopes of the King 

 William Range and the Hartz Mountains to South Cape, 

 divides Tasmania into two portions of nearly equal area, but 

 unlike in all other respects. In the eastern half, except for a 

 fringe of settlement along the North- West Coast, are all the 

 agricultural and pastoral lands and chief centres of popula- 

 tion ; in the western half, the general physical conditions 

 are unsuitable for farming or stock raising, and, with the 

 exception just noted, the population consists exclusively of 

 those who are engaged more or less directly in exploiting 

 such of its mineral wealth as has come under the prospector's 

 notice. 



In the Western Country the enterprising pioneer or pros- 

 pector is free from the risk of encountering some of the perils 

 immemorially associated iu fable or in fact with the exploration 

 of strange lands. Here are no dragons guarding the golden 

 apples of the modern Garden of the Hesperides ; not even 

 grizzly bears or man-eating tigers intent on prey, nor savage 

 tribes fighting for their native fastnesses. But no less 

 formidable are the obstacles with which the explorer dependent 

 on his own resources has to contend. There are patches of 

 open country, but not where he chiefly wants to go ; and he 

 must be prepared to face rugged and lofty ranges, difficult 

 either to scale or to descend; deep ravines blocked with every 

 imaginable kind of obstruction ; or rivers difficult to cross at 

 any time, and sometimes rising in one night so as to cut off 

 retreat for weeks. Among the worst of his foes are two 



