170 



THE DISCOVERY OF PORT DALRYMPLE. 



Pateraon's 



Journal, 525. 



columns of basalt rising one above another to over 

 500 feet in height, as picturesque beyond description, — 

 the effect being heightened by the number of black 

 swans, unable to fiy, in the smooth water close to the 

 fall. Paterson named the Cataract River the South 

 Esk ; and, to the main river, including what is now 

 known as the North Esk, he gave the name of the 

 Tamar, out of compliment to Governor King, whose 

 birthplace was on the English stream of that name. 

 After an absence of a fortnight, the Lady Nelson got 

 back to Western Arm, and entered that shallow inlet. 

 Here Paterson landed to examine, for the second time, a 

 piece of land at the head of the Arm, between two 

 streams a quarter of a mile apart, and which he had 

 named Kent's Burn and M'Millan's Burn. He says, 

 " On landing, the soil is very forbidding, being a hard 

 whitish clay mixed with quartz ; but towards the hills 

 there are patches of excellent ground, and the finest 

 timber I ever saw (gum and wattle). Boats, at high 

 water, can come up close to either of the runs. After 

 much labour and attention I have paid in examining 

 every part of the river, I have seen none so advanta- 

 geously situated for a permanent settlement as this, where 

 there is an easy communication with vessels arriving in 

 this port as well as with settlements higher up the river. 

 These favourable circumstances have induced rue to 

 determine upon removing the principal part of my small 

 military force, with most of the prisoners, and commence 

 clearing ground and erecting the necessary buildings 

 before die winter sets in." 



The question naturally arises, by what extraordinary 

 perversity of reasoning did Paterson arrive at the con- 

 clusion that the miserable patch of land at the bead of 

 Western Arm was pre-eminently the best place for bis 

 chief settlement ? He had just come back from a visit 

 to the splendid site of Launceston and the fertile banks 

 of the North Esk, which he described as superior to any 

 country yet discovered either in Van Diemen's Land or 

 New South Wales, and as possessing every possible 

 advantage for a settlement, including approach to it by a 

 fine river navigable for large ships. What induced him, 

 then, after anxious thought, to pass this by, and deli- 

 berately make choice of a narrow strip of land which he 

 describes as having a forbidding soil, and which was 

 situated at the head of a shallow and muddy inlet not 

 accessible even to boats except at high water? The ex- 

 planation, T think, is to be found in the policy of the home 





