MINERAL WATERS. 277 



all the pains bestowed, the soil acquired for the 

 purposes of cultivation is often of very inferior 

 quality. 



The soil on the peninsula, of which Circular 

 Head forms the most remarkable feature, is gene- 

 rally speaking of a poor light character, and not 

 well watered. The country lying immediately be- 

 hind it is low and cut up with branches from a 

 large estuary. 



My esteemed friend, Count Strzelecki, traversed 

 the country between Circular Head and Point 

 Woolnorth (N.W. extreme of Tasmania), and 

 describes it as presenting "eight rivers as difficult 

 to cross as the Scamander, with deep gullies and 

 rocky ridges, and marshes more difficult to over- 

 come than either ridges or rivers.'* 



We learned there were some mineral waters about 

 fifteen miles to the westward of Circular Head. The 

 ingredients they contain, and their medicinal pro- 

 perties, were discovered by Count Strzelecki, who 

 in speaking of them, says, " 1 have endeavoured to 

 ascertain both — the latter on my own constitution, 

 and the former by chemical analysis. They belong 

 to a class of carbonated waters," From his exam- 

 ination he concludes, *' that they are aperient and 

 tonic, and sufficiently disgusting to the palate to 

 pass for highly medicinal." 



Whilst here, I was informed that a small 

 party of natives were still at large, though seldom 

 seen, keeping in the remotest recesses of the woods. 

 They thus succeeded in avoiding for some years their 



