288 
i Excursion to Port Arthur . 
that, consequently, all the drudgery of labour is borne 
by the convicts. The chain-gangs are employed in 
carting stone, firewood, or drawing water for general use. 
The most habitual absconders, like the French felons of 
the Bagne, are not only put in irons, but fastened to a 
chain, where they are made to break stones under the 
eye of every passer-by, a punishment the most intolerably 
galling. Every week there is a muster for medical 
inspection. They strip to the waist, because a man’s 
face may greatly belie his bodily energies. If an indi¬ 
vidual, by flaccidity of muscle or other unequivocal token, 
give evidence of being overtasked, he is either removed 
to lighter labour or received into the hospital, as the 
urgency of the case may demand. 
Exclusive of the gangs already enumerated, there are 
sawyers, splitters, quarriers, masons, grubbers, gardeners, 
water-men, tramway-men, and all the different artisans. 
Half an hour before evening muster, a ball is suspended 
at one of the yard-arms of the semaphore, a signal to 
those that work in the bush to make their way to head¬ 
quarters, any absentee being returned as absconded. 
A telescope and a semaphore are excellent tell-tales, 
and the telegraphic code of Capt. Booth has been brought 
to a very high pitch of perfection: by it, very long 
messages are conveyed to and from Hobart Town and 
Port Arthur in an incredibly short space. An answer 
to one sent by ourselves, and responded to in a short 
space, may suffice, the distance exceeding 50 miles either 
way: it was this— 44 The Commandant is informed there 
have been no arrivals from England;” also, 46 that Hr. 
Waterhouse is much the same as he was.” These 
semaphores are all worked by convicts, constantly liable 
to removal: were they, as they should be, given as a 
reward with a small salary to discharged soldiers, they 
might be made much more efficient, and, if extended 
