t.

All the bays and harbours in Van Diemen's Land, and most of
those likewise which are in Bass's Straits, and on the southern
coast of New Holland, abound with these fish at the same season.
If the colonists, therefore, were not thus restricted from this
fishery, it would soon become an immense source of wealth to
them; and I have no doubt that they would be enabled to export
many thousand tons of oil annually to this country. But it is in
vain that nature has been thus lavish of her bounties to them; in
vain do their seas and harbours invite them to embark in these
inexhaustible channels of wealth and enterprize. Their
government, that government which ought to be the foremost in
developing their nascent efforts, and fostering them to maturity,
is itself the first to check their growth and impede their
advancement. What a miserly system of legislation is it, which
thus locks up from its own subjects, a fund of riches that might
administer to the wants, and contribute to the happiness of
thousands! What barbarous tantalization to compel them to thirst
in the midst of the waters of abundance!

PORT DALRYMPLE.

This port, which was discovered by Flinders, in 1798, lies
thirty degrees E. S. E. of Three Hammock Island. The town of
Launceston stands about thirty miles from its entrance, at the
junction of the North Esk, and the South with the river Tamar. It
is little more than an inconsiderable village, the houses in
general being of the humblest description. Its population is
between three and four hundred souls. The tide reaches nine or
ten miles up the river Esk, and the produce of the farms within
that distance, may be sent down to the town in boats. But the
North Esk descends from a range of mountains, by a cataract
immediately into the river Tamar, and is consequently altogether
inaccessible to navigation.

The Tamar has sufficient depth of water as far as Launceston,
for vessels of a hundred and fifty tons burthen; but the
navigation of this river is very intricate, by reason of the
banks and shallows with which it abounds, and it has been at
length prudently resolved to remove the seat of government nearer
the entrance of Port Dalrymple. A town called George Town, has
been for the last three years in a state of active preparation;
and it is probable that the commandant, and indeed the entire
civil and military establishments* of this settlement, have by
this time removed to it. In this case the greater par