294 
Excursion to Port Arthur . 
the shipment of produce, and large openings are making 
in the forests ; so that, discontinue the system a couple 
of years hence, and even then Tasmania will have gained 
a vast accession of richly productive agrestial territory. 
Frost’s son-in-law, Geaeh, is at Salt-water Creek. Tie 
was ill in hospital in the hands of my clever friend Ur. 
Agnew ; but, entertaining no desire, I did not visit him. 
Our Thursday’s tour ended at the Coal-mines, a station 
semi-probationary, semi-penal. It contains an extensive 
stone penitentiary, to which large additions are about to 
be made; a military barrack for 30 men, officers’ quarters, 
commissariat store, and sundry other stone edifices. The 
scenery around is superb. We landed at 7 o’clock in the 
evening, dined and took up our quarters with Lieutenant 
Barclay of the 96th. Next morning, I descended the 
main shaft along with Captain Booth: it is fifty-two yards 
deep. The winch was manned by convicts under punish¬ 
ment : one stroke of the knife might sunder the rope, 
and then—however it has never been tried ; deeds of 
ferocity being very unfrequent. A gang on the surface 
worked the main pump, and another below plied a hori- 
\ zontal or slightly inclined draw-pump, which threw the 
water into the chief well. The seam has been excavated 
110 yards from the shaft, having also several chambers 
diverging right and left: the height of the bore is 4 feet. 
The quality of the coal partakes much more of anthracite 
than of bitumen; it flies a good deal, but produces intense 
heat. The mines are esteemed the most irksome punish¬ 
ment the felon encounters, because he is not a practised 
miner, and because he labours, night and day, eight 
hours on a spell. Continued stooping, and close atmo¬ 
sphere, caused our party to be bedewed with perspira¬ 
tion. I cannot, therefore, wonder at the abhorrence 
of the compulsory miner in loathing what I conceive to 
be a dreadful vocation,—a vocation I should think that 
those who had once been forced to, would in future, when 
