14+ AUSTRALIAN PICTURES. 



romantic views has become greater and greater with successive years ; and, 

 though New Zealand is the Switzerland of the colonies, yet Tasmania, being 

 so much nearer the mainland, and having so many native charms, is sure to 

 hold its own as a holiday resort. 



Moreover Tasmania is held in affectionate regard by thousands of 

 Australians whose birthplace she is. Her material prosperity is not so great 

 as that of her neighbours, and consequently her youth are lured to the 

 mainland, where they usually establish themselves successfully, and where 

 they also acquire such substance as enables them at frequent intervals to 

 revisit the old land. So great is the migration of the young men that it 

 would have fared ill with the damsels of the isle but for a compensatory 

 influence. Their own youth were lured away to seek for wealth and to woo 

 wives in other lands ; but the Tasmanian clime enriches the fair sex with 

 complexions which are the despair of their more sallow sisters of the north, 

 and the deserted maidens have always had their revenge by captivating and 

 winning their visitors. His lady friends tremble for the Australian bachelor 

 who spends a leisure month across the straits. And then there are many 

 territorial families in Victoria and New South Wales whose sires emigrated 

 from Tasmania in the early days of colonisation. It is not surprising there- 

 fore that there is a strong attachment between the rich sons and the poorer 

 motherland which it will take much to sever. 



Bass Straits separate Tasmania from Australia, but the journey is easily 

 made in large well-equipped steamers which leave Melbourne regularly, and 

 which speedily reach the smooth water of the Tamar. This river debouches 

 on the north coast, and is a noble stream forty miles in length, coursing 

 through alluvial stretches backed in the far distance by grand tiers of 

 mountain ranges. Along its banks there are dots of settlement, but, as they 

 are at wide intervals, the traveller appreciates the charm of navigating what 

 appears to be an unexplored tract. But for the beacons and buoys to mark 

 the shoals there is little to indicate the presence of man. Given a clear 

 day — and all days are more or less clear in Tasmania — a bracing breeze 

 from the south, and a trip up the Tamar cannot be excelled ; and if it be 

 that the traveller comes in the early spring, before the snow has quite dis- 

 appeared from the highest hills beyond, and while the freshness of the 

 new vegetation still makes the near landscape glorious, he will wish for no 

 better communion with nature. 



Launceston, on the Tamar, is the second city of the island — second in 

 point of picturesque surroundings, second also in political importance, because 

 Hobart, in the south, is the capital ; but first in the material aspect, from 

 which point of view even lovers of the beautiful are content to pay some 

 homage. It is decidedly a pretty town. At its wharves two rivers, the 

 North Esk and South Esk, meet, and in their mingling form the Tamar. 

 The North Esk comes down over crags and precipices, through a striking 



