and four hundred criminals to execution, nineteen out of twenty of whom, had been drawn into the commission of the crimes for which they forfeited their lives, either directly or indirectly by intemperance.

On the 15th of 4th month, we held a meeting with some sawyers, in their huts, at a place called the Kings Pits, on the ascent of Mount Wellington, at an elevation of about 2,000 feet, and about four miles from the town. These people seemed a little interested in the counsel given them, and received a few tracts gratefully. The forest among which they are residing is very lofty: many of the trees are clear of branches for upwards of 100 feet. It caught fire a few months ago, and some of the men narrowly escaped. The trees are blackened to the top, but are beginning to shoot again from their charred stems. The brushwood is very thick in some of these forests. A shower of snow fell while we were at the place. Acacia Oxycedrus, 10 feet high, was in flower on the ascent of the mountain. This, along with numerous shrubs of other kinds, formed impervious thickets in some places; while, in others, Epacris impressa, displayed its brilliant blossoms of crimson and of rose colour.

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The brook that supplies Hobart Town with water, flows from Mount Wellington through a valley at the foot of the mountain. Here the bed of the brook is rocky, and so nearly flat as scarcely to deserve the name of The Cascades, by which this place is called. Many dead trees and branches lie across the brook, by the sides of which grows Drymophila cyanocarpa-a plant, allied to Solomon's Seal, producing sky-blue berries on elegantly three-branched, nodding top. Dianella cærulea—a sedgy plant-flourishes on the drier slopes: this, as well as Billardiera longiflora-a climbing shrub, that entwines itself among the bushes-was now exhibiting its violet-coloured fruit. In damp places, by the side of the brook, a princely tree-fern, Cybotium Billardieri, emerged through the surrounding foliage. A multitude of other ferns, of large and small size, enriched the rocky margins of the stream, which I crossed upon the trunk of one of the prostrate giants of

the forest, a Gum-tree of large dimensions, which had been uprooted by some blast from the mountain; and in its fall, had subdued many of the neighbouring bushes, and made a way where otherwise the forest would have been inaccessible. On descending from this natural bridge, to examine a treefern, I found myself at the foot of one of their trunks, which was about 5 feet in circumference and 10 in height. The lower part was a mass of protruding roots, and the upper part clothed with short remains of leaf-stalks, looking rough and blackened: this was surmounted by dead leaves hanging down, and nearly obscuring the trunk from distant view: above was the noble crest of fronds, or leaves, resembling those of Asplenium Filix-fæmina in form, but exceeding 11 feet in length, in various degrees of inclination between erect and horizontal, and of the tenderest green, rendered more delicate by the contrast with the dark verdure of the surrounding foliage. At my feet were several other ferns of large size, covering the ground, and which, through age and their favourable situation, had attained root-stocks a foot in height, crowned by circles of leaves three times that length. Other plants of tree-fern, at short distances, concealed from my view, by their spreading fronds, the foliage of the lofty evergreens that towered a hundred feet above them. The trunk of one of the tree-ferns was clothed with a Trichomanes and several species of Hymenophyllum small membranaceous ferns of great delicacy and beauty. On a rocky bank adjoining, there were other ferns, with creeping roots, that threw up their bright green fronds at short distances from each other, decorating the ledges on which they grew. In the deepest recesses of this shade I could enjoy the novel scene-ferns above, below, around-without fear of molestation; no dangerous beasts of prey inhabiting this interesting island. The annexed etching will give the reader some idea of a tree-fern, many species of which exceed in beauty the stately palms of warmer climates.

5th mo. 7th, 1832. Having obtained a letter of introduction from the Lieut. Governor to Major Baylee, the commandant of the Penal Settlement, at Macquarie Harbour;

and other necessary arrangements having been made for our passage on board the Government brig Tamar, we embarked, after dining with the senior colonial chaplain, William Bedford, and his family, from whom we received much kind attention during our sojourn in V. D. Land. The vessel not sailing till the 10th, we spent the evening at the house of Nathaniel Turner, the Wesleyan Minister stationed at Hobart Town, in company with John Allen Manton, a Wesleyan Missionary, also proceeding to Macquarie Harbour. At N. Turner's we also met the teachers of four sabbath schools, containing together about 200 children. Two of these schools are in Hobart Town, and the others at Sandy Bay and O'Briens Bridge. After the teachers had transacted the business of their monthly meeting, we had a solemn and highly favoured religious opportunity; in which, in the fresh feeling of heavenly love, I endeavoured to encourage them to live under a sense of the divine presence, and to seek to the Lord for counsel and direction, in order that their wellintended labours might be blessed.

There were in the cabin of the Tamar, John Burn, the captain for the voyage, Henry Herberg, the mate, David Hoy, a ship's carpenter, Jno. A. Manton, George W. Walker, and myself. Ten private soldiers and a sergeant, as guard, occupied a portion of the hold, in which there were also provisions for the Penal Settlement, and a flock of sheep. Two soldiers' wives and five children were in the midships. Twelve seamen, several of whom were convicts, formed the crew; and 18 prisoners under sentence to the Penal Settlement completed the ship's company. The last occupied a jail, separated from the hold by wooden bars, filled with nails, and accessible only from the deck by a small hatchway. One of the soldiers on guard stood constantly by this hatchway, which was secured by three bolts across the opening, two walked the deck, the one on one side returning with his face toward the prison, at the time the other was going in the opposite direction, and two were in the hold, seated in view of the jail. The prisoners wore chains, and only two of them were allowed to come on deck at a time