TAB 



78 



T A S 



which it would be difficult to keep tlie coast on board, 



if he stretched to the south-fast; hut notwithstanding he 



was by all means to endeavour to proceed, that it uiiirhl 



whether the laud was divided from the 



great known South Continent or not. Ti .'lions 



were signed in 1044, 2'Jtli Juuuary, by the Kovcruor- 



.-.il, and two vessels the Xeehaan and the Hraak 



,1 at Tasman's disposal. But of the results of 



this second voyage absolutely nothing is known wilh 



certainty ; nothing was ever" published. ' It seems to 



the general opinion. 



man sailed round the Gulf of Ci and tlien 



.ard along Anihem, and the noHhern const of Van 

 Dieinen's Land; and the form of those coasts in Tln'u'- 

 not's charts of 10G:t, and in thos. -ueeeedinsr 



, en up to the end of the eighteenth cen- 

 tury, is snppo-ed to have resulted from this voyage. 

 This opinion i* strengthened by finding the na,. 

 Taxman, and of the governor-general, and of two of the 

 c-ouneil, who signed his instructions, applied to places at 

 the head of the gulf; that of Maria, the 



daughter of the governor, to whom Tasman is said to 

 hme been attached. In the notes also of Burgomaster 

 m-crning the inhabitants of Xcw Guinea and 

 Hollnndia Nova, as extracted by Mr. Dalrym, 



. Ta.sman is mentioned as anionir tlio.se 

 from whom his information was drawn.' Of the private 

 life of Tasnian nothing is known, neither when nor where 

 he was born or died. 



An account of Tasman's first voyage is given in the ( ' 



tion ilc Thrrcnnt. partie iv. ; in Harris's Navifantium alque 



-nitii/in l!i///i-it/t't;i. 17 It, fol. ; at the end of the 



rrru, tome ii., Paris ; in Tfrm Atis/ru/is 



'In, or J't,/fiifri.<: to tin' Tfi-rn Ami nil is <Iuri<: /// 



lander, Kdin., 1700. From these sources, and from 1 ! 



.-sclle, tome 45, the substance of this article 

 has been collected. Tasnian is not even named in Chal- 

 . nor in many other universal biographies in the 

 Kn^'lish language. 



TASMA'.M V, more generally known by the name of 

 Van Diemen's Land, is an island and British colony situated 

 in the southern hemisphere, south of Australia. It lies 

 between 40" -15' and -13" -15' S. lat., and between 144 45' 

 and 148" 30' E. long. It is separated from Australia by 

 ; Strait, which washes its northern shore. On the 

 vrest of the island is the Indian Ocean, and on the cast the 

 Pacific. On the south it i.s washed by that portion of the 

 ocean which connects the two first-named oceans, and ex- 

 tends southward -to the shores of the newly-discovered 

 antarctic continent. [Sourn POLAR CorvmiKs.] Prom 

 Cape Grim, its north-western extremity, it extends south- 

 south-east to South Cape, a distance of about 2;JO miles,. 

 and this is its greatest length. Its greatest width occurs 

 near 41 20' S. lat., between Ordnance Point on the west 

 and St. Helen's Point on the cast, which are about 190 

 miles distant from one another. According to a roush 

 .ate, the surface is 34,000 square miles, or about 4000 

 square miles less than the extent of Ireland. 



Coast-line anil l\!'iinln. The western o inning 



on (lie north at Cape Grim, and extending to South-Weil 

 Cape, is about 240 miles long. It is less accessible than 

 the other shores of the island, as in general it runsinacon- 



Rhclter. This coast is therefore rareh \ i-ited by vcsse' 



no settlements have been established on it, except at Mac- 



qiiarric Harbour and Port D;. :ivicts 



are kept to cut wo..d. The northern pail.-, of this 



and as far south as Macqnarrii . are in ^eneial 



low, lint smith of Macquairie Harbour thc\ 



South 6f Cape Grim, which eo ..frno- 



'" elevation, the const is loimed liy low Mack rocks, 

 which tow Point sink down to the level of the 



!id in this part then' 



Point, which H formed by a short, low, and sandy 

 projection, d, the mouth of the river Arthur, the beach is 

 low ;i:id sandy, mid behind it extends a swampy lev. '. 



es to the distance of three or four 

 e country rises into low hill-. 



places the low beach in interrupted by rocky cliffs. This 

 low coabt continues to Ordnance Point, near which is 



.Inc. ill's Harbour, which is accessible to boats. At Ord- 

 nance Point the 



it is eminently interrupt. , and windy 1i 



The shores are overgrown with low 

 moderate extent occurs between the mouth uf the 

 PcddiT anil Sandy Cape, but r .1 use-lew. 



; art of the coast which extends Iron. e to 



;- almost iinki 



chi.t'n 'dy low shores, without u beach, ai 



the back of which there are hills, some nf whu 

 considerable i. Macquarrie Harbour is a fim j 



sheet \tendinir neiiily 25 miles south-south 



and tcrniinalinir wilh two line basins, Kirch's Inlet and 

 Kelly's lla-in. It is on an avcraire live miles wide, and 

 affords good anchorage and complete shelter : but lie, 

 entnmce is a bar, which has only nini iter. The 



harbour is surrounded by wooded'hills. I, forming 



the western side of the entrance of Macquarric I : 

 a steep and rocky promontory, and farther south the . 

 line is hiirh and rocky, and here and there : - pro- 



ject into the sea, but the sumll bays thus formed do not 

 afford shelter airainst the swell of the sea, and I 

 sale hmdinir-placc. At the back of the beach the, 

 steep and lolly hills. Cape Hibbs is formed by a moun- 

 tain-mass projecting three or four miles into tin- 

 South of it the coast rises still hiijher, and between that 

 cape and Rocky Point two hills, which project about two 

 miles from the shores, constitute a harbour, in which small 

 vessels may anchor, but it is open to the west. The hiirh 

 shores continue to Port Davey and to South-NVcst i 

 Port Davey is the best harbour on j 



trance it is about four miles wide, and it continues at that 

 width about 6 miles inland, when it divides intohv 

 That branch which runs northward is called Cockburn, 

 and is about two miles wide and six long : tin 

 which runs eastward, does not much exceed a mile in 

 width, but extends more than 10 miles inland, tnrninir nt 

 its eastern extremity to the south. These two bra 

 have cood anchorage, and afford sale shelter, bciny 

 rounded by hisfh hills: but the wide buy. of which they 

 are branches, is open to the westerly winds and the 

 of the sea: the anchorage however is pood. 



The southern coast, between South-West Cape and 

 Whale Head, is about 5O miles lonir, and runs in 

 pentine line, forming several bays, of which a few have 

 good anchorage, as Cox Biprht. east of South-West i 

 and the nameless wide bay which lies we-t of South i 

 and at wlt< a harbour about 1i\ e miles 



long :ind a mile wide, which has a cood entrance, and 

 affords anchorage and shelter, but it has not been renula'Iy 



i cd. This harbour is separated from the wide bay by 

 a tongue of land of moderate elevation, on which Hi 

 breaks with a heavy surf. The shores of this coast arc in 



;il rocky and high, and constitute the lower declivity 

 of the mountain-masses which extend over this pait of the 

 country. Several small islands opposite this co:is| break 

 the swell of the sea, and as most of them are elevated, they 



The south-eastern . uls from Whale Head, the 



most south-eastern promontory of Tasmania, to Cape l-'re- 

 derik Heiidrik, about CO miles in a straight line, but, 

 long the shores, it is probably double that ex- 

 tent. It Contains a water number of sale anchi ; 

 than probably any other country of the same extent on 

 the dobe. There is hardly a mile along this coast-line 

 which does not otter a safe refuse to vessels. This 

 advantage is owing pailly to the size and form of 

 the island of liruiii. which extends alonir the . 

 and partly to two far-projecting pioniontoH 

 Ralphs Peninsula and Tasman's Peninsula. The island of 

 liruni extends about 'M miles nearly due south and 

 north, but it varies greatly in width, as the istlun 



.nan is only a tew hundred pa. whilst the 



mountain tract south of ii is more than emhi miles wide. 

 It consists of three isolated tracts of hiu'li hills, ronu. 

 by isthmusi - : the most southern of these hac -is has the 

 foiiu of a hook, and d with the ccntial moun- 



tain-tract by a low isthmus about a mile wide and two 

 miles loiii;, which se| Ha\ from I)"d Hay. 



The central mountain n:^ the main body of 



the island, is about 15 miles I. MIL: l'm south to uoilh/and 

 more than eiirht miles w ide in 1 1 part, It is con- 



nected with the northern muunliiin-tiact b\ the istlun 



