THE VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE 469 



aware that the tone of society has assumed any peculiar 

 character; but with such habits, and without intellectual 

 pursuits, it can hardly fail to deteriorate. My opinion is 

 such, that nothing but rather sharp necessity should compel 

 me to emigrate. 



The rapid prosperity and future prospects of this colony 

 are to me, not understanding these subjects, very puzzling. 

 The two main exports are wool and whale-oil, and to both 

 of these productions there is a limit. The country is totally 

 unfit for canals, therefore there is a not very distant point, 

 beyond which the land-carriage of wool will not repay the 

 expense of shearing and tending sheep. Pasture everywhere 

 is so thin that settlers have already pushed far into the 

 interior: moreover, the country further inland becomes ex- 

 tremely poor. Agriculture, on account of the droughts, can 

 never succeed on an extended scale: therefore, so far as I 

 can see, Australia must ultimately depend upon being the 

 centre of commerce for the southern hemisphere, and per- 

 haps on her future manufactories. Possessing coal, she 

 always has the moving power at hand. From the habitable 

 country extending along the coast, and from her English 

 extraction, she is sure to be a maritime nation. I formerly 

 imagined that Australia would rise to be as grand and power- 

 ful a country as North America, but now it appears to me 

 that such future grandeur is rather problematical. 



With respect to the state of the convicts, I had still fewer 

 opportunities of judging than on other points. The first 

 question is, whether their condition is at all one of punish- 

 ment: no one will maintain that it is a very severe one. 

 This, however, I suppose, is of little consequence as long as 

 it continues to be an object of dread to criminals at home. 

 The corporeal wants of the convicts are tolerably well sup- 

 plied: their prospect of future liberty and comfort is not 

 distant, and, after good conduct, certain. A " ticket of 

 leave," which, as long as a man keeps clear of suspicion as 

 well as of crime, makes him free within a certain district, is 

 given upon good conduct, after years proportional to the 

 length of the sentence; yet with all this, and overlooking 

 the previous imprisonment and wretched passage out, I 

 believe the years of assignment are passed away with discon- 



