105 



i slets guard the shore, one steep cliff showing a seemingly extensive 

 cavern in its perpendicular face. 



At 7 the anchor was aweigh, and we were working down towards 

 Bathurst Harbour, the entrance to which lies on the south-east 

 shore of Port Davey, about three miles above the pyramidal rock. 

 It is guarded on either hand by islands of the most picturesque 

 beauty, tlieir summits shaded with peculiarly ornamental and 

 umbrageous dwarf foliage, giving to their crown the same unspeak- 

 able grace that a fine head of hair imparts to the human face 

 divine. The starboard island was named after Mr. Ronald Gunn ; 

 the smaller one on the larboard or north side, was styled " Kathleen 

 Isle," a title given by Lady Franklin, in compliment to the wife of 

 the writer. Some pretty, sharp, pinnacled rocks jutting from this 

 isle, received the appropriate appellation, " Mavourneen. " The 

 faces of these islands and the circumjacent shores are composed of 

 slabs of quartz, packed, if I may so express it, in slate-like layers. 

 They are perforated with numberless caves, every bight and cove 

 developing an infinite variety of such deep indentations. The 

 conical hills of quartz, with the tiny patches of verdure minutely 

 interspersed, give a mosaic-like character to the scene. Nevertheless, 

 the elegant though rugged contour of those hills — the multiform, 

 tortuous undulations of their sterile steeps — the dangerous acclivities 

 of their scathed and frowning chasms, all combine in the production 

 of a landscape singularly romantic ; one that in a rude clime and 

 wintry welkin, wovild inevitably be classed amongst the savage, a 

 desigiaation from which the genial atmosphere and Italian blue of 

 the sky that o'er canopies, alone preserves it. Desjiite its barren 

 character, even in the boisterous north, it might sometimes be 

 tenued a soft scene, every outline being so gracefully rotmded — - 

 every asperity so much subdued. Light airs and floods proved 

 annoyingly adverse to our outward progress, many hours being 

 frittered away in the labour of a few minutes. We could do no 

 good, and were, eventually, compelled to anchor. 



At llh. 30m. , the gig pushed off on a trip up Spring River. The 

 party it contained consisted of Sir John and Lady Franklin, Mr. 

 JVIiUigan, IMr. Giffin, second officer of the Eliza, and myself. About 

 a mile above Kathleen, opposite to a conical peak of quartz, and 

 close to the anchorage the schooner had been striving to gain, lies 

 " Tumbull Island," named after the interim Colonial Treasurer. 

 It is a low, rocky, brushy lump, bare at the summit and fringed at 

 the edge, like a friar's j^ate. Above TumbHll some beautiful 

 miniature bays are formed by a large projecting tongue of land, 

 bare, verdant, and divided into conical swells towards the centre, 

 but skirted with a leafy screen towards the water. Close to this 

 point, a low, woody, circular island occujiies the centre of the 

 channel. In honour of Miss Franklin's governess, it received the 

 ai^pellation, "Williamson Lsland." Spring River here becomes 

 perfectly land-locked ; its waters expanding, and assuming the form 

 of an extensive hill-embosomed lake. The day, hitherto, though 

 dry, had been chilly ; Apollo hid his glories in a vapoury shroud, 

 peering occasionally through, not penetrating, the scene he seemed 

 desirous to illume. Rounding a bare promontory on the north 

 shore, we entered a second extensive lake. A rugged, lofty, quart* 



