Tamar River

“ The Valley of Launceston is a very Arcadia of pastoral repose, while the Tamar—which in its whole course is rather a succession of beautiful lakes than an ordinary river—with its narrow defiles, basaltic rocks and sparkling cataracts, picturesque rocks that cut off one lake and suddenly reveal another, is a very miracle of beauty, dancing, frothing, foaming, like some playful sprite possessed with the very spirit of mischief. ”

“ The navigation of this river for large vessels is not easy, in consequence of a bar and other hindrances. The Tamar is formed by the union of two smaller streams, named the North Esk, and South Esk, and at Launceston, the distance from the sea is about forty miles. Towards its mouth, the land adjoining this stream is barren and sandy, but within a few miles this kind of soil is succeeded by rich level marshes, and beautiful slopes of moderately wooded and rich pasture country rising up behind these. ”

“ This is a reach of ocean-travel which for boisterousness and discomfort can be said to rival the English Channel. As the coast of Tasmania is approached, a tall light-house, one hundred and forty feet in height, first attracts the attention,—designating the mouth of the Tamar River. The land formed a lee for the steamer as we approached it, giving us smooth water at last, whereupon the strained muscles of the body gradually relaxed, and it was delightful to be once more upon an even keel. At sea the human body is constantly struggling in the vain effort to preserve its equilibrium. ”

“ The Tamar has, indeed, more the appearance of a chain of lakes, than of a regularly-formed river; and such it probably was, until, by long undermining, assisted perhaps by some unusual weight of water, a communicating channel was formed, and a passage forced out to sea. From the shoals in Sea Reach, and more particularly from those at Green Island which turn the whole force of the tides, one is led to suppose, that the period when the passage to sea was forced has not been very remote. ”

“ Through rich and peopled meadows finds its way.”
At St. Stephen’s-by-Launceston it receives the Werrington stream, and expands into a beautiful lake in Werrington Park. Below the lake the impetuous Attery stream joins the now brimming river, which, passing under Poulston and Greston, reaches Tavistock New Bridge, where we are on the “scientific frontier” of Devon and Cornwall. At this point, too, the Tamar enters upon a new stage of its existence, leaving its lowly moorland birth and quiet ordinary youth behind it, and beginning a career which is henceforth the cynosure of all eyes. ”

“ The Tamar rises in the northern side of the county, in the parish of Moorwinstow, and with little variation, pursues a southerly direction, for nearly 40 miles, when it unites with the Lynher Creek, and ultimately forms the spacious harbour of Harmoaze, between Plymouth Dock and Saltash. The banks of this river, which is the most considerable in the West of England, are richly diversified with rocks and woods, and the scenery in many parts of its course is extremely beautiful. ”

“ The city lies amid surroundings of great natural beauty in a valley enclosed by lofty hills. Cora Linn, about 6 m. distant, a deep gorge of the North Esk river, the Punch Bowl and Cataract Gorge, over which the South Esk falls in a magnificent cascade, joining the North Esk to form the Tamar, are spots famed throughout the Australian commonwealth for their romantic beauty. The city is the commercial capital of northern Tasmania, the river Tamar being navigable up to the town for vessels of 4000 tons. ”

“ If we turn from the country on the east and north of Morwel Down, to that on the west of it, we shall find that the Cornwall side of the river Tamar is more diversified in the rocks that occur; killas generally prevails, but granite crowns the summit of Kithill, which rises gradually from the banks of the river to the height of 1400 feet, and the same rock is to be found near the base of the mountain, at Gunnis Lake Copper Mine, near New Bridge, and again a little higher up the stream, at a place called the Clitter, a provincial word, signifying a collection of loose masses of rock. ”

“ On the west bank is an argillaceous schist formation, in nearly a vertical position. It has been quarried, and produces abundance of excellent roofing slate. There is also a limestone deposit here.
The Tamar is three miles wide at its mouth, and on Low Head, its eastern point, is a lighthouse rising to one hundred and forty feet above the sea. Thickets of tea-shrub fringe its banks, and here and there the temporary log-hut of some recent settler, who has cleared away just sufficient elbow-room in the woods for himself and family, breaks upon the solitude of the scene. ”

“ The outlet is full doubled in width, and free from the embarrassments encountered above. Tamarack is a frequent tree on the shores, and the pond lily, flag and Indian reed, appear in the stream. This outlet is followed about eight miles, where it expands into a small lake, called Birch Lake, which we were only thirteen minutes in passing. Its outlet exhibits a pebbly bottom, interspersed with boulders, which produce so much inequality in the depth, that the men were obliged often to wade. ”

“ In its northern part a river called the Tarim flows from west to east. It is formed by the Yarkand-darya and the Khotan-darya on the south, and receives other affluents along its course, for water streams down from the snowfields and glaciers of the wreath of mountains enclosing Eastern Turkestan. The head-waters of the Tarim leap merrily down through narrow valleys among the mountains, but the great river is doomed never to reach the sea. It terminates and is lost in a desert lake named Lop-nor. ”

“ Tamarack Creek is icy cold, delicious, exhilarating champagne water. It is flowing bank-full in the meadow with silent speed, but only a few hundred yards below our camp the ground is bare gray granite strewn with boulders, large spaces being without a single tree or only a small one here and there anchored in narrow seams and cracks. The boulders, many of them very large, are not in piles or scattered like rubbish among loose crumbling débris as if weathered out of the solid as boulders of disintegration ”

“ The tide is well up, and a pleasant breeze soon speeds us on our way. We pass the Budshead creek, that extends inland to Tamerton-Foliot, and are soon opposite a second and somewhat larger opening that runs up to Maristow, where, at its far end, the sparkling Tavy, fresh from the granite boulders of Dartmoor, delivereth her waters into the salt bosom of the lower Tamar. At about mid-distance up the creek on its northern shore, a small compact village, with a square battlemented church tower rising in the midst, has its place on the bank that slopes gently down to the water's edge. ”

“ With the exception of the Kiok-ala-daria the Tarim has no important subsidiary channels in its lower course, and is mostly contained in one channel. Along its banks to the right and left of its course are scattered marshes and lakes. These are for the most part artificially formed by the natives for purposes of fishing and pasturage—reeds being the only food for cattle in this wretched country. The river itself assists in the irrigation of its own valley. ”

“ Stunted tamarisk grows in some parts but not in the immediate neighbourhood of the salt deposits. We have here instead a belt of myriads of small conical sand-hills, also spreading from west to east, quite low to the west and getting higher for several miles towards the east. In the south-west part of the desert, curiously enough, between the zone of conical hills and the salt deposits, and parallel to both, lies a row of semi-spherical sand and salt mounds of a whitish colour. ”

“ The tamaracks changed color and the grass on the open spaces grew gray with age. The stream was a small river now and the grouse in the hills changed plumage. The big peaks put on winter caps of whiteness and the mornings were cold. ”

“ Five or six miles above Mywa, the valley contracts much, and the Tambur (whose bed is elevated about 3000 feet) becomes a turbulent river, shooting along its course with immense velocity, torn into foam as it lashes the spurs of rock that flank it, and the enormous boulders with which its bed is strewn.* [In some places torrents of stone were carried down by landslips, obstructing the rivers; when in the beds of streams, they were often cemented by felspathic clay into a hard breccia of angular quartz, gneiss, and felspar nodules.] ”

“ It is a land of mountains, lakes, and rivers; its climate is a little warmer than that of England, and a little more dry, and everything that grows in the British Islands will grow in Tasmania. The banks of the Tamar reminded our friends of those of the Thames, save that they were not as well peopled, and the mountain ranges which formed the background on either side were lofty and picturesque.
As the vessel neared her destination, Frank and Fred were informed that they were at the head of the Tamar, or would be when they reached Launceston. ”

“ The northern shore plainly proclaims its genesis. The gravel moraine is heaped there like a barricade, often in pieces larger than a man's head; between are tufts of rushes and rotten branches; the shallows are covered with green and brown river-shells; on the marshy parts round holes are washed out, in which, at the sound of approaching footsteps, hundreds of crabs rush to hide. The shore is covered along its whole length with prickly willow, which the ice-floes shave off every winter close to the root.
Here Timar drew his boat ashore and tied it to a tree. ”

“ Land slips are very common, which afford a considerable amount of matter for the torrents to carry seawards. The Tawaran is subject to very sudden inundations, the waters occasionally reaching the houses at the village of Buñgol, though fifty feet above the stream. There is no foundation for Dalrymple’s [368] story, which has been often repeated, of the Tawaran rising in the lake; it evidently springs from the main spur of Kina Balu.
The Abai is a salt-water creek, but preserving more the appearance of a river; much of both banks are mangrove until we approach the houses. ”

“ The name Tarim, as we were told, is derived from "tara," i. e. field, owing to the circumstance of the water of this river in its upper course being mostly utilized to irrigate the fields.
Fifty versts below the mouth of the Ugen-daria a large arm, the Kiok-ala-daria (about 150 feet wide) separates from the Tarim and flows in an independent channel for about 130 versts before reuniting with the parent river. Into this arm flows the Koncheh-daria from the north. ”

“ Over broad reaches of lava rock a shallow river flows by the village to the sea, gurgling under shadows of tamarind foliage. It passes beside the market-place—a market-place without stalls, benches, sheds, or pavements: meats, fruits, and vegetables are simply fastened to the trees. Women are washing and naked children bathing in the stream; they are bronze-skinned, a fine dark color with a faint tint of red in it.... ”

“ In the afternoon, the wind and tide serving, we proceeded up the Tamar, which is devious in its course, and opens out into many pretty bays. The shores present traces of basalt. The adjacent country is hilly, and wooded down to the water, except in places where the land has been cleared; on which corn and grass are verdant. Some of the habitations of the settlers look comfortable. ”

“ Although there is very apparent difficulty in navigating the Tamar, still the first glance shows it to be a stream of importance. Its valley, although not wide, may be traced for miles abruptly separating the ranges of hills. We can easily imagine, therefore, the joy experienced by Captain Flinders on first discovering it in 1798, and thus bestowing a solid and lasting benefit on the future Tasmanian colonists. ”

“ For a mile and a half from the present margin of the river, near a large and beautiful tamarind-tree, we ascended its outer bank, rising to the height of about thirty feet, the brink of which is not only generally reached by the immense inundation, but even sometimes overflowed, so that the people who cross it during the height of the inundation, leaving the canoes here, have still to make their way through deep water, covering this highest level. ”

“ At half-past nine o’clock the left bank, close at hand, presented a real forest of tamarinds, which also traverses the lower covered pasture-land, or follows, in an irregular form, the newer line of the shore, caused by the descent of the stream. An incredible number of birds appear on all sides; these airy attendants of the marshes devour terrestrial animals, which perish through the overflow of water, and would otherwise entirely poison the air, as in Egypt. The trees, standing singly, are, for the most part, quite white, from the excrement of the birds, and naturally die away. ”

“ The tree is not believed by Dr. Brandis to be indigenous in India, but is supposed to be so in tropical Africa. The origin of the name is curious. It is Ar. tamar-u'l-Hind, 'date of India,' or perhaps rather in Persian form, tamar-i-Hindī. It is possible that the original name may have been thamar, 'fruit' of India, rather than tamar, 'date.'
1298.—"When they have taken a merchant vessel, they force the merchants to swallow a stuff called Tamarindi, mixed in sea-water, which produces a violent purging."—Marco Polo, 2nd ed., ii. 383. c. ”