II HOBART AND THE MIDLANDS 47 



plies a quantity of various fruit, the willow- 

 margined river which forms a boundary to the 

 estate, is stocked with English Trout and Perch, 

 and the stubbles are full of Quail. Walking in 

 the old walled orchard one is transported back 

 to the home counties of England, save that the 

 blue wings of the Parrots dash in and out among 

 the fruit-trees and the metallic song of the native 

 Magpie falls strangely on the ear. In a congenial 

 climate where the snow never lies in winter, and 

 the summer heats are tempered with cool breezes 

 blowing from the Western Tiers, the time is passed 

 between the healthy and profitable operations of 

 farming and the strenuous or polite exercises of 

 tennis and croquet ; nor will the Englishman 

 wonder more than the native-born Australian at 

 the refined care with which the smallest details 

 of a complicated civilization have been trans- 

 planted and reproduced so many thousand miles 

 from its place of origin. But the philosopher 

 may observe, and the patriot will boast, a less 

 constrained social intercourse, a spirit of freedom 

 and independence in the very air which blows 

 in from virgin forests and indomitable mountains 

 never far distant ; and this close proximity to 

 nature, calling forth whether in sport or. earnest 

 all the arts of the natural man, gives to the 

 Australian his characteristics of resourcefulness 

 and independence. 



One of the most important industries in Tas- 

 mania is the felling and exportation of the various 



