Lake St. Clair and Macquarie Harbour. 
419 
character may be given in the words,—poor, wet, and unsound. 
The herbage is as usual with that of the open land of this quarter, 
mixed with tea-tree.* 
In the midst of this plain we found two natives’ huts, very 
recently abandoned, a circumstance which was indicated by several 
portions of Kangaroo flesh, which were found here, being still 
only half decayed. The huts were made of bark, and at the time 
when we fell in with them, were sufficiently compact to afford good 
shelter. On the bark that covered them, were some extraordinary 
charcoal drawings ; one representing two men spearing an animal, 
which from its erect posture was, I presume, meant for a kangaroo; 
though the artist, by a strange oversight, had forgotten the 
animal’s tail, and had made the fore legs about twice as long as 
the hinder ones. There was also an outline of a dog, and an 
emu, really not badly done; and some other designs, the exact 
meaning of which I was not able to make out. I left these rude 
specimens of the arts to the mercy of the elements, which I after¬ 
wards found had respected them less than I had done, for on a 
visit some months after, I found the rude wig-wams of these last 
of the aborigines of Tasmania were blown down, and the sketches 
obliterated. 
From Painter’s Plain we again entered another myrtle forest, 
about a mile wide, on a moderate hill. The road then passes over 
the largest and most important plain between the River Derwent 
and Macquarie Harbour. I at first called it the Valley of the 
Frenchman, from its proximity to the Frenchman’s Cap mountain ; 
but I afterwards named it the Valley of the Loddon, from the 
beautiful river that drains it. This is formed by three streams, 
each 12 or 15 yards wide. It flows over a gravelly bottom, with 
very moderate velocity, and finally enters the Franklin. Unlike 
the majority of our rivers, it is not a brawling mountain torrent, 
dashing over cataracts and waterfalls, but has all the gentleness 
of the course of an English stream. I called it the Loddon from 
a fancied similarity to that stream. On its banks there is a little 
good land ; a narrow strip on either branch, in all not much more 
Leptospcrnum Sertccum .—Ed. 
