502 RAILROADS IN 



keep all the innkeepers in dread of a visit. At one 

 place we stopped at, the host came up with a 

 rueful countenance, and told us that it was only 

 the previous night that he had been "stuck up," 

 with a pistol at his head, while they took what they 

 wanted from his larder. 



The first half of the journey was over a rather 

 hilly and gradually rising country ; the road 

 then winds through almost one continued vale, 

 bounded on either side by broken ranges of moun- 

 tains. The noble Ben Lomond appears quite close 

 on the right as you approach Launceston. I was 

 much pleased with the comfortable inns on this 

 line of road, the greater part of which is as smooth 

 as a gravel walk. 



I could not avoid, during this journey, being 

 forcibly struck with the great facilities afforded by 

 the road from Hobarton to Launceston for a rail- 

 way ; and I have since heard and seen enough to 

 convince me, that not only would such an under- 

 taking be practicable, but that it would greatly 

 conduce to the prosperity of Tasmania. At present, 

 most of the productions of the northern part of 

 the island are necessarily, on account of the expense 

 of land-carriage, shipped at Launceston or Port Dal- 

 rymple, whereas the Derwent affords such superior 

 facilities for the purposes of commerce, that if a 

 means of cheap and rapid intercourse with it 

 existed, nearly the whole export and import traffic of 

 the coasts would be drawn thither. I have already 



