S. H. Wintle

“ Somewhat exciting is the transit, the horses belly deep, and the traveller has to lift his feet till his knees are level with his nose, while the wheels of the coach stir up the black mud which emits the antithesis of an agreeable odor. This continues for about a mile. The road now runs along the sea shore, and is separated from the surf-beaten beach by sand dunes, covered with stunted vegetation, chiefly boobyalla. There are 16 miles of sand road between Falmouth and George’s Bay to which latter place I will assume the visitor is going. ”

“ To reach this favored locality, the traveller exchanges a seat in the railway car for one in a four wheeled conveyance at the Corners. It is very questionable if such another dreary, monotonous spot exists on the face of the earth as the Corners. Wherever the eye may wander, it meets with nothing but a dismal stretch of a sheep run, dotted with a few stunted, distorted trees, and the solitary, and still more dreary looking hotel rising out of the midst, while its proprietor, and those about him, have become hopelessly infected with the prevailing gruesome air of the detested spot. ”

“ High overhead the mountain soars, and huge masses of rock are impending like Damocles sword, and seem ready to come thundering down on the slightest provocation, carrying destruction and death in their course. This threatening aspect have they presented for untold ages, and for untold ages it they may maintain. Much room for marvel there is as to how the trees continue to grow and hold their own [8] on such steep mountain slopes, looking much like Natural Selection at fault. But then gumtrees in Tasmania will grow anywhere. ”

“ In the slates and sandstones on these hillsides, there are quartz veins and lodes containing gold more, or less, and these have been worn down ages ago, the result being that deep down in the old river bed the precious metal lies, but it is locked up, and the woolgrowers have the key. On the summits of those granite hills which are table-topped there is tin ore in small quantity. But we must not stay here too long to geologise, for we’ve many a league to traverse yet. ”

“ A little over two miles of the descent is accomplished, when another sharp turn unfolds to view the boundless ocean rolling in long lines of foaming, curling, surges on the shore—the hollow booming roar of which, is, and has been for some time past distinctly audible. ”

“ Horses are changed at the inn and soon the traveller is being hurled merrily along through an avenue of fine old wattle trees, whose branches meet over-head, and if it be Spring time the perfume from their golden blossoms is intoxicating. ”

“ The traveller is now in the region of tin mines. Try where he may, in the sands of the sea shore, the gravel of the roads, he will obtain tin ore, but it exists only in payable quantity from three to six miles from the coast.
There is a fine river the George, rich in sylvan scenery, and teeming with fish. The chief features of the district are the hills of granite, with their smooth rounded crests. These swell up in all directions, giving the country a highly undulating appearance. There are some very rare scene studies for the artist in the ravines. ”

“ Yonder lofty hill, with the peculiar cone-shaped rock-mass rising high from the centre of the summit, is Tower Hill, where gold mining in the quartz lodes is carried on with apparently not very satisfactory results. As the traveller proceeds along the smooth and winding road, he will observe that some of the cuttings have been made to a considerable depth through very rounded pebbles and boulders of quartz, and granite, interspersed occasionally with slate, sandstone, and greenstone, while bands of gravel are frequently interstratified. ”

“ The Telegraph hotel is considered the principal one. There is a Bank, Post Office, and Telegraph Office in one neat building. A Police Office and Commissioner of Mines combined. There are two general stores. The climate of George’s Bay is unquestionably the finest in Tasmania. [11] It is warmer than the Capital and not subject to such sudden transitions of temperature. There are very keen frosts in Winter, and also occasional frosts in Summer, but the sun beams out with resplendent glory through soft blue skies, flecked with fleecy clouds, after them. ”

“ A mountain rill, which is almost vertical, comes leaping down in tiny falls, and is then conducted by a little flume into the stone trough. At one time the pass appears to have turned back on itself—at another it is taking a course at right angles—so numerous and acute are its windings as it rounds the heads of the many gullies. ”

“ It is granite, and what in geology is known as an “outlier.” How the rabbits manage to find a living upon it is matter for marvel, for it has all the appearance of a barren rock. Coasting crafts avail themselves of it for shelter in rough weather. It affords but a poor haven at best, but there is no other between Falmouth and George’s Bay. ”

“ For 500 feet above the upper seam of coal, volcanic rock obtains, which on the summit of the hill rises in very fine columns, a characteristic of the greenstone of the same age in Tasmania. The beds of clay above and below the coal furnish very fine specimens of fossil ferns conspicuous among which, are the tongue-fern Glossopteris, the wedge-fern Sphenopteris, the nerve-fern Neuropteris and the tooth-fern Odontopteris. All of which are long since extinct it is believed. ”

“ The tin ore, for the most part is obtained at a depth from the surface of the vallies of from four to six feet, in a pebbly drift occupying the depressions of the granite which is usually decomposed so as to present a soft clayey consistency. It would seem to be what is known as “erratic”—that is it has come from a distance as the pebbles with which it is associated have been supplied by rocks which are not to be met with in the locality. ”

“ High above the tops of trees over 300 feet in height in many instances the eye of the traveller sweeps the terrible chasms so thickly covered with tree-ferns and other shade and moisture-loving vegetation as to be sunshine proof. ”

“ These are the ancient bed of the South Esk river, rolling now more than one hundred feet below, through the valley, and they tell him that many ages ago at this height that river flowed. These exposed terraces alternate with cuttings through the Silurian beds, exposing in vertical sections quartz veins, traversing the almost vertical, and very much contorted slates and sandstones. He has now reached “Tullochgorum,” the fine property of James Grant, Esq., where the neat villa is just discernible through the [4] foliage of willows which surround it. ”

“ Nicholas, celebrated for a very thick seam of coal and three or four smaller ones which make their appearance on the side of the range 500 feet above the valley. The large seam is 16 feet in thickness, but the coal, although bituminous, is of a quality that renders it unfit for steam, or gas making purposes. For one or two inches of good bright coal, there are on the average from 12 to 15 inches of inferior earthy matter—in fine bituminized clay. ”