The vallies intervening the granite hills are the scenes of the
operations of the miners. These vallies are chiefly occupied by
button-grass marshes through which creeks and smaller streamlets
flow and which take their rise in the higher mountain ranges in the
interior. This button-grass which may not be widely well-known grows
in tussocks from one foot to three feet in height and detached. Its
leaves are long and wiry, and its seed-vessels consist of spherical,
hard rough knobs about the size of marbles, closely resembling the old
brass buttons of that form, from which it derives its name. These knobs
are supported upon long smooth wiry stems often four and five feet in
length. In passing through one of these marshes these knobs frequently
spring back with considerable force, and owing to their hard rough
nature, and the flexibility of the stems are capable of inflicting
pain on the exposed face and hands. The creeks running through these
valleys are fringed with belts of dense ti-tree among which is the
flowering _melaleuca_ of the botanist, _banera_, or the river-rose
and tall cutting-grass oftentimes so thickly interlaced as to form an
almost impenetrable barrier. The soil on the hill-slopes is usually
poor and gravelly formed by the decomposition of the coarse porphyritic
granite of the district and yet it is thickly clothed with ironbark
gums, peppermint gums, prickly acacia and those arboraeolian harps the
sombre-hued Casuarina, on which, to indulge a figurative expression
the zephyrs love to play with viewless fingers. 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.
At 10 miles inland to the west is the Land of Goschen, a flat well
grassed plateau on the banks of the George river, with a mountain
rising out of the midst. Four miles further on Gould’s Country is
reached, with its lofty mountain ranges of granite and deep gullies,
densely covered with myrtle, sassafras, and tree ferns. Here are
situated the principal tin mines of the East Coast.
Profoundly grand are the gullies of this region as the road winds along
the mountain heights. Now on the right hand, now on the left the sides
of the mountains sweep down into apparently bottomless ravines. 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. The scene of St. Mary’s Pass is a combination of the
grand and picturesque. That of Gould’s Country is the awfully grand
alone. Here there is a slab some miles in length traversing the sides
of the mountains. There are two inns, several stores, and cottage
dwellings. Sixteen miles further to the West is Thomas Plain on which
stands the township of Weldborough surrounded for many miles by tin
mines. This is reached by a narrow pack-track from Gould Country which
is knee-deep in mud except in the very height of Summer. All the tin
ore raised here has to be packed out on horses to Gould’s Country and
Morina and owing to the continual traffic of the heavily-laden horses
and the exclusion of wind and sunshine by the dense vegetation the
track is a very “Slough of Despond.”
Thomas Plain is situated in the centre of the Ringarooma district and
enclosed by an amphitheatre of lofty tree-crowned heights. Several
cool pellucid never failing streams flow through it. It is the most
picturesque in Tasmania.
Such are the salient features of the North East Coast of Tasmania,
and I believe the visitor in search of a salubrious clime and choice
scenery will allow that these fully repay the journey.
* * * * *
Transcriber’s Notes:
――Text in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_).
――Obvious punctuation and spelling inaccuracies were silently corrected.
――Archaic and variable spelling has been preserved.
――Variations in hyphenation and compound words have been preserved.