Murray Bay

“ VIEW OF MURRAY BAY FROM POINTE-AU-PIC
The traveler who means to put up at a hotel has an ample range of choice. The Manoir Richelieu, a younger sister to the Château Frontenac of Quebec, gazes over a glorious expanse of river from the heights above the quay. It supplies its guests with confort moderne softened to the native simplicity of Murray Bay, but it can hardly count as a part of the village; it is too young, it is an interloper. ”

“ Then, as the gang-plank, at a whistle from the quarterdeck, is about to be lifted, shrieks from the quay indicate the belated arrival of a barrel, a pig, or some stout passenger waving breathlessly hand-bag and umbrella. At last the bateau glides on toward Murray Bay. The same bustle which characterized the arrival at Bay St. Paul, but tempered by a higher civilization, marks the arrival at Murray Bay. The custom-house is a mere amiable ceremony, and the traveler is at once confronted with his first exercise of choice: “Will monsieur have a calèche or a planche?” ”

“ He reared a large family and built not merely for himself but for his posterity. And yet, just one hundred years after he began his work at Murray Bay, the last of his descendants was laid in the grave and the family became extinct. It is the fashion of our modern fiction to end the tale in sorrow not in joy. Perhaps the fashion has a more real basis in fact than we like to think. At any rate this true story of the seigneur of Murray Bay ends with the closed record of his family history on a granite monument in Quebec. ”

“ On the twenty-third day of their voyage they entered a great lake. Crossing to the southern shore, they found to their bitter grief that shoals and sandbanks made it impossible for them to reach the sea. They found that the Murray flowed into Encounter Bay, but thither they could not pass. The thunder of the surf upon the shore brought no hope to the tired explorers. They had no alternative but to turn back and retrace their way. Terrible was the task that lay before them. On half-rations and with hostile natives to encounter they must fight their way against wind and stream. ”

“ Lawrence. And canoeing, which is not without a spice of danger, might well be worth a greater risk, for only from the center of the bay can you see the mountains rise in sequent tiers beyond the Far Village church; only on the bay can you appreciate the angelus or see all the beauty of the Murray Bay [Pg 729] sunsets, gloriously reflected in the water and coloring the eastern sky. But the chief pastime is fishing. There are salmon to be had in the Murray River, and ambitious fishermen spend long, happy hours, casting, casting, casting. ”

“ This document, no doubt, found its way at Murray Bay through some of the officers who sat on the court-martial, and who belonged to [2] Fraser's Highlanders, who settled in numbers at Murray Bay, in 1782, and were the immediate progenitors of genuine Jean Baptistes — such as the Warrens, the McLeans, the Harveys, the Blackburns, and several other families, who of their Scotch ancestry have retained nothing save the name. They are all Roman Catholics, and speak nothing but French. ”

“ It sends out, however, many lateral spurs, such as those which on the land side divide the head-waters of the rivers Murray, Murrumbidgee, Lachlan and Macquarrie, the Namoy, the Gwydir, and the Karaula, and on the sea-side separate the respective basins of the districts of Gipps' Land and Twofold Bay, the Shoalhaven River, the Hawksbury and Hunter Rivers, the Port Macquarrie basin, that of the Clarence River, and that of the district of Moreton Bay. ”

“ Indeed, the squatters on the Australian Continent—those useful pioneers of colonization—were otherwise profitably employed. The occupation of new country, which led to the settlement of Port Phillip, in 1837, and of Twofold Bay, in 1839, had been carried, in 1840, 300 miles to the north, beyond and behind Moreton Bay—whilst to the south and west, sheep and cattle stations extended beyond Port Phillip to the very confines of South Australia ”

“ A pass by which there is easy access from the valley of the Pelorus to that of the Wairau has since been discovered.
The route described in the fourth paper crosses an elevated range of rather peculiar geological construction, a continuation of the high land of which Mount Arthur (above the line of perpetual snow) is a summit, from the Motuaka valley to a river which flows N. and S. into the Massacre Bay of Tasman—now more commonly called Coal Bay, from the large quantities of that mineral found in it. ”

“ Passing from the ultramarine deeps of the Rubicon Point, we round a sharply jutting promontory and glide into the jade-green waters of Emerald Bay, a long, oval-shaped inlet at the southern end of the lake. Surely, it is rightly named, for here green predominates, from the steep sides of the encircling hills to the very center of the shallow bay. At the upper end of the bay, rising almost sheer from the green water, is a rocky, scantily-wooded island where for many years an eccentric Englishman made his home. ”

“ The whole length of that bay, including the harbor of Newport from the ocean to Providence river, is less than five leagues, and its greatest breadth not more than three. But the harbor described in the letter first as extending twelve leagues and then enlarging itself, formed a large bay of twenty leagues in circumference. The two, it is clear, are essentially unlike. The great rock rising out of the sea at the entrance of the harbor, has no existence in this bay or harbor. Narraganset bay, therefore, affords no support to the idea that Block island, or any other, is the island of Louise. ”

“ The waters of the Darling River, after a long circuitous course, unite themselves with the River Murray, and, reinforced with other tributaries, maintain continuous course to the Southern Ocean, near Port Elliot. The great trade, then, which is likely to result from the steam navigation of the River Murray, comprises all that present and future pastoral produce on the western side of the mountain ridge, aback of Sydney, which it will be difficult and costly to send for shipment to the enumerated ports on the coast line of New South Wales and Port Phillip. ”

“ A day's sail brought us to a little, heavily wooded island near the mouth of Glacier Bay. This we named Pleasant Island.
As we broke camp in the morning our guide said: "We must take on board a supply of dry wood here, as there is none beyond."
Leaving this last green island we steered northwest into the great bay, the country of ice and bare rocks. Muir's excitement was increasing every moment, and as the majestic arena opened before us and the Muir, Geicke, Pacific and other great glaciers (all nameless as yet) began to appear, he could hardly contain himself. ”

“ George came to Marvis Bay at about five o'clock one evening in July. Marvis Bay has a well-established reputation as a summer resort, and, while not perhaps in every respect the paradise which the excitable writer of the local guide-book asserts it to be, on the whole it earns its reputation. Its sands are smooth and firm, sloping almost imperceptibly into the ocean. There is surf for those who like it, and smoother water beyond for those whose ideals in bathing are not confined to jumping up and down on a given jelly-fish. At the northern end of the beach there is a long pier. ”

“ About the mouth there is much good pastoral land, which has been taken up and is in course of occupation. The mouth of the river covered by Babbage island forms a harbor accessible by the Southern channel to vessels drawing 14 feet. Sharks Bay will probably become the centre of the trade of the Upper Murchison, as well as of the Gascoigne; it is a vast sheet of water having a low Eastern coast of about 130 miles covered by mangrove flats on the South of the Gascoigne, and rising in the sandhills of Lyell's Range to the North, unbroken, save by the mouth of that river. ”

“ Off the South-East end of Legendre Island the sea is very full of reefs and dry rocks, but between Hauy and Delambre Islands there is a safe channel of nine and ten fathoms deep.
The bay in which we had anchored was called, at Mr. Roe's request, Nickol's Bay; it is open only to the North-East, and affords safe shelter, with good holding-ground. At the bottom of the bay, on both sides of a projecting point of land, on which three round-backed hills were conspicuous, the coast falls back, and forms two bights, the western of which is backed by very low land, lined with mangroves ”

“ Fort McMurray is the parting of the ways where the Hudson's Bay Company's steamer Grahame meets us, bringing her tale of outward-going passengers from the North. The journey of these people from Fort McMurray to The Landing is going to be a very different thing from the easy floating with the current that we have enjoyed. All northern rivers are navigated against stream by "tacking," that is, towing the boats, weary mile after mile, "by the power o' man," the half-breed boatmen scrambling now on the bank, now in the water, tugging the heavily-laden craft after them. ”

“ Passengers on the Clyde can transfer at Exploits to the Home without returning to Lewisporte. The eccentric sculptured cliffs of Leading Tickles appear beyond Fortune Harbour. Springdale, at the mouth of Hall's Bay, is the starting point for noted trout and salmon streams. The Home continues across Green Bay to Nipper's Harbour where weird-looking rocks rising out of the sea remind one of scenes about Brigus. This coast is so pregnant with minerals that in places the ore may be seen glittering beneath the water. ”

“ We anchored on the north shore, off a sandy bay, which I think as good a birth as any in the bay; Cape Banks bore east-south-east, and Point Solander south-south-east, the ground clear and good. The wind, either from the north-east or south-east quarters, set in a prodigious sea. Higher up the bay there is a spot of four fathoms, where a few ships might be laid in tolerable security, but they must be lightened, to enable them to pass over a flat of twelve feet, and that depth but of narrow limits. ”

“ Along the east and north part of the bay there is a long reef that makes at a short distance from the shore, upon which a heavy surf is always breaking. In entering the bay, the whole habitable part of this section of the island is presented at one view, and forms a most grand and beautiful landscape. It is nearly semi-circular, and rises like an amphitheatre, in fruitful and populous circular ranges of hills, until at the distance of several miles, it terminates in a circumference of high and gloomy mountains, the tops of which resemble a massive wall. ”

“ Some wild flying clouds that rapidly traversed the heavens imparted a curious alternation of light and shadow to the lowlands that presented themselves to our view—chequering the whole with gloomy patches and light spots, and revealing or hiding in rapid succession the extensive woods and the patches of cultivation that lay within the bosom of the Bay. The dazzling white sand beaches, too, strongly marked by the dark blue sea, heightened the beauty of the scene; which to us, who had for some months seen nothing but the monotonous north-west coast of Australia, appeared truly enchanting. ”

“ The Murray, when flooded from the eastward, will doubtless carry a boat safely down its channel, but as a navigable river at all seasons, it is, like the Macquarie, and indeed every other western stream, useless to the colonists. ”

“ Sailing thence to the southward towards the large island, we discovered a very large bay, well peopled, and very fertile in yams and fruits, hogs and fowls. They are all black people and naked. They fight with bows, darts and clubs. They did not choose to have peace with us, though we frequently spoke to them and made presents; and they never, with their goodwill, let us set foot on shore.
This bay is very refreshing, and in it fall many and large rivers. It is in 15 2/3° S. latitude, and in circuit it is twenty-five leagues. ”

“ I expect we shall have more wind than we want to-morrow.
Wednesday, September 13.—It rained heavily until day broke this morning, when the rain ceased; but it continued calm, with dark, gloomy, threatening weather. Soon after daybreak Cross and I took the boat and pulled round to a small bay to the northward of the one the cutter lay in. We knew that many years ago there were some Maoris living somewhere in Wilson's Bay, but we did not know in which part of it. This small bay, however, proves to be the spot, and a lovely spot it is. ”

“ And no progress was made until the next morning, when, having a fresh breeze, we reached an anchorage in a bay on the north side, and close under the base of Mount Bedwell. On our way we steered through strong tide-ripplings in which, at times, notwithstanding the strength of the breeze, the cutter was quite ungovernable. Off the bay is a low mangrove island which I had the pleasure to name after the Reverend James W. Burford, of Stratford, Essex, and the bay in which we had anchored was called after W. Aiton, Esquire, of the Royal Gardens at Kew. ”

“ From Saint Just's Church-town, the road conducts us over a wild part of the peninsula, although highly salubrious, and invigorating from the fine sea breezes which blow from every side; after a ride over such bleak and barren hills, the eye experiences a singular repose on our approach to the cultivated shores of the Mount's Bay. ”