280 SIR JOHN FRANKLIN. 



separating the ranges of hills. We can easily ima- 

 gine, therefore, the joy experienced by Captain 

 Flinders on first discovering it in 1798, and thus 

 bestowing- a solid and lastinof benefit on the future 

 Tasmanian colonists. This is not, however, the 

 only portion of Australasia whose inhabitants are 

 indebted for the riches they are reaping from the 

 soil, to the enterprizing spirit of Captain Flinders. 



George Town is a straggling village lying two 

 miles within the entrance of the Tamar ; in its 

 neighbourhood were found green stone, basalt, and 

 trappean rocks. Launceston, the northern capital 

 of Tasmania, lies thirty miles up the river, or rather 

 at the confluence of the two streams called the North 

 and South Esk, which form it. 



We found that the Governor was attending not 

 only to the present but the future welfare of the 

 colonists, by examining into the most eligible spots 

 for erecting lighthouses at the eastern entrance of 

 Bass Strait, fronting the N. E. extreme of Tas- 

 mania, the numerous dangers besetting which have 

 been fatal to several vessels. These buildings will 

 be lasting records of the benefits the colony derived 

 from Sir John Franklin's government. 



As we subsequently visited the Tamar, it is 

 needless to give here the little information we 

 gathered during our brief stay. Our observations 

 were made on the south point of Lagoon Bay, 

 where we found a whale boat belonging to a party 

 of sealers just arrived with birds' feathers and skins 

 for the Launceston market. They had left their 



