be our home fo~ the next few days, 
looked even more picturesque, if pos¬ 
sible, than by daylight. The long curve 
of silver sand stretching iike a bow 
from Point Puer, a mile or so away, 
terminated in a rocky knoll. Towards 
the south end of the beach ^ the sand 
dunes were slightly raised- Then came 
a sandy hollow, and the hill rose sharp¬ 
ly. It was in the dip between the sand 
dunes and the hill that the camp was 
pitched, midsl bracken below and 
spreading euenlypt above. As we rested 
round the camp fire amidst such scenes 
of beauty, our thoughts naturally turn¬ 
ed to the days of years ago, when Port 
Arthur was noted as a convict settle¬ 
ment. The historians of our party 
were soon busy exolaining liow. when 
the settlement was in the height of its 
glory—or degradation—there were no 
less than 7,000 prisoners employed on 
the Peninsula. At the northern end of 
Safety Cove, Point Puer juts far into 
the bay. It was here that the boy con¬ 
victs were imprisoned, and it is stated 
that on occasions there were ns many 
as 800 hoys, whose ages did not exceed 
18 years, imprisoned. This portion _m 
the settlement was not used after 18oi, 
so there is not much to be seen now ot 
the spacious buildings which were once 
erected there. Oil the end of Point 
Puer lies the isle known as Dead Is¬ 
land- It was here that hundreds of the 
convicts found their final resting-pi ice, 
as it was used us the cemetery of the 
settlement. Just to the north of Point 
Puer there is Opossum Bay, and it 
was on the shores ol a picturesque cove 
in this bay that the main convict set¬ 
tlement was situated. This beautiful 
spit was selected for the settlement hv 
Governor Arthur in the year 1830, and 
a start was immediately made to pre¬ 
pare for the future. How rapidly the 
settlement grew can be judged f'om the 
fact that when the famous Dr- 
J. O’Hara Booth had charge of the 
station, the number ot emmets under 
his charge was over 7,000. These, of 
course, were not nil stationed at Port 
Arthur, but were spread over the other 
settlements on the Peninsula. Port 
Arthur, however, was the main station, 
and the majority of the convicts were 
stationed there. 
This period of Tasmania s history, and 
the fact that we were camped near 
the site where, not so many years ago. 
thousands of convicts had been at work, 
and the result of all their labour was 
fast going into decay, gave us food for 
thought as we “swapped yarns” round 
our camp fire on this glorious Easter 
evening. Reverting to the present, we 
turned our attention to the country to 
the south of the camp, and those of 
our party who had not previously vis¬ 
ited the locality were told of the charms 
of the Remarkable Cave, which is situ¬ 
ated on the cliffs of the South Coast, 
of the views from the top of Brown 
Mountain, of the charms of Half Moon 
Bay, and of the other natural beau¬ 
ties of thiB district. Thinking of the 
pleasures in store, we sought our tents 
early, and were soon lulled to sleep by 
the soft beat of the surge on the beach. 
Thursday morning saw several mem¬ 
bers courting Neptune in the bay, after 
which breakfast, and then to work. 
The camp ‘‘roads’' were set out by an 
authorised surveyor, and the various 
claims located. By lunch-time most of 
the tents were pitched. After lunch a 
large dining-tent was erected, and 
various improvements made to the sur¬ 
roundings of the camp, and by night¬ 
fall the camp was quite ready to re¬ 
ceive the remainder of the party, which 
would tiling its numerical strength up 
to 38. The main party left town at 7 
p.in. on Thursday evening, and arrived 
at tile camp in the early hours of Good 
Friday morning. After a refreshing 
“supper” tents were soon sought, and 
quietness reigned supreme. 
The camp woke to the calls of the 
parrots among the overshadowing 
gums, and it was not long before the 
melodious sound of the breakfast gong 
showed that Chef Woodward and his 
assistants had been astir early. At 
breakfast, plans were made for the day. 
the majority of the campers resolving 
to visit the Blowhole and the Remark¬ 
able Cave. Accordingly, lunches were 
procured, and a merry party started off 
for the cave, while other campers made 
up parties to visit other portions of the 
country The main party visited the 
Blowhole first. This is situated on the 
coast, between Brown Mountain and 
the Remarkable Cave. It is simply a 
large split in the rocky formation of the 
coast, the split forming a hole, at the 
bottom of which the sea, a couple of 
hundred feet below, roars in from the 
ocean, evidently by a tunnel. The 
Blowhole, in its present state, is dis¬ 
tinctly dangerous. One does not notice 
this yawning cavity until close to its 
edge, and there is not the slightest 
