g a
domestic supply of the latter article.

About thirty miles from Launceston the traveller arrives at
Campbelltown, which is the centre of a pastoral district. The place lies
embosomed in hills, the highest point being Mount Campbell,--an
elevation rising twenty-three hundred feet above sea-level. Next the
town of Ross is passed,--a pretty little village, beautified by
ornamental trees, and having a long arched stone bridge and lovely rural
surroundings. Tunbridge, which follows, is half-way between the two
cities, and seemed to be a very thrifty settlement. This, as we were
told, was the nearest point to what is known as the Lake District of
Tasmania, where a series of large and permanent deposits of water, lying
three thousand feet above the average inhabited portions of the island,
form a centre of considerable interest. It is proposed to tap these
lakes in the best engineering style, for the purpose of irrigating
hundreds of square miles of soil,--the country here, as upon the
mainland, being subject to occasional droughts.

As we proceeded southward the picturesqueness of the scenery increased,
now winding through valleys or creeping over mountain passes. Wherever
the valleys widen into plains there are seen numberless rural homes,
substantial and attractive, surrounded by fertile fields, cultivated
gardens, and large fruit-orchards,--the latter leafless at this season,
though the general foliage of the country is evergreen. Thrifty gorse
hedges are prominent everywhere, blazing with yellow blossoms which
lighted up and warmed the landscape like sunshine. Oatlands, Jericho,
and Melton Mowbry follow one another,--each a thriving town graced with
substantial buildings, often constructed of white freestone wrought from
neighboring quarries. All the way the tall mountain ranges are in full
sight, with patches of snow here and there high up on their sides. At
the town of Brighton the river Derwent is first seen not far away,
shining under the sun's rays like silver; after which Hobart is soon
reached, and we are relieved from the imprisonment of the uncomfortable
cars.

Hobart was so named by Colonel Collins, its founder, in 1804, in honor
of Lord Hobart, who was then Secretary of State for the Colonies. It is
surrounded by hills and mountains on all sides except where the Derwent
opens into lake form, making a deep and well-sheltered harbor, whence it
leads the way into the Southern Ocean. Among the lofty hills in