My Home in Tasmania: During a Residence of Nine Years, Volume 2J. Murray, 1852 - Tasmania |
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abode amusing arrived Badger Head beach beautiful bees Ben Lomond birds bright brought brown bush busy Campbell Town cattle chevaux de frise close colony colour comfort cottage creature Cygnet River dark dead Deloraine dogs door dreary English farm favourite fawn colour feet fence fern-tree ferns fire fish flowers forest frequently garden George George Town green handsome hills Hobarton honey horses inches long island kind land Lath Hall Launceston leaves legs looking Meredith miles morning mountain native nearly neighbour nest never night numbers opossums passed peep pleasant plumage poor Port Sorell POYSTON pretty road rocky round scarcely seemed seen servants shrubs snake soft sometimes soon South Wales species Spring Vale summer sunshine Swan Port Swan River tail tall Tasmanian thick town trees usually Van Diemen's Land veranda vessel visited walk wasp whilst whole wild wood young
Popular passages
Page 163 - The stems of the fern-trees have varied from six to twenty or thirty feet high, and from eight inches diameter to two or three feet; their external substance being a dark-coloured, thick, soft, fibrous, mat-like bark, frequently netted over with the most delicate little ferns, growing on it parasitically. One species of these creeping ferns had long winding stems, so tough and strong that I could rarely break them, and waving polished leaves, not unlike hart's-tongue, but narrower. These wreathed...
Page 164 - We stood in a large level space, devoid of grass or any kind of undergrowth, but strewn with fern leaflets like a thick, soft, even mat. Hundreds — perhaps thousands — of...
Page 44 - ... thief! thief! thief!" Their own morals being none of the purest, we might expect them to be chary of abuse; but apparently their individual experiences in theft only render them more alert in detecting the peccadilloes of their brethren, and we have often traced out our poultry foes through...
Page 126 - Gigantic gum-trees rose on every side, and in every variety that such bare, gaunt things can exhibit ; for handsome as single gum - trees frequently are, and thick -foliaged and massive in their sombre hues, those which grow clustered in the forests are...
Page 137 - ... who are not, as it might seem, a species of bird, but human beings ; who rent portions of this forest from the proprietors or their mortgagees, on exorbitant terms, and vainly endeavour to exist on what they can earn besides, their frequent compulsory abstinence from meat, when they cannot afford to buy it, even in this land of cheap and abundant food, giving them some affinity to the grain-eating white cockatoos.
Page 45 - ... share, as long as any remained. Yet was it well worth the loss of a few cherries to witness the impudent nonchalance of these miners — how they would hop and creep about the branches, and, instead of flying off when pelted with -gravel or shouted at, would pop out their bright-eyed saucy heads from amidst the clustering leaves, and cry "thief! thief!
Page 103 - ... right, I involuntarily uttered a cry of astonishment and delight. Beyond a sort of promontory, in which one hilly range abruptly ended, had arisen, as if by enchantment, a living picture of the snowy Alps ! — a distant lofty expanse of crag, and battlement and peak, all white and dazzling in silvery snow,* amidst which the steep sides of some mighty buttress-like rocks showed black as jet, and the deep blue unclouded sky crowned this glorious scene ; which, I suppose, was yet the more charming...
Page 164 - Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of fern-trees grew here, of nearly uniform size, and at equal distances, all straight and erect as chiselled pillars, and, springing from their living capitals, the long, arching, thick-ribbed fern-leaves spread forth and mingled densely overhead in a groined roof of the daintiest beauty, through which not a ray of light gleamed down, the solemn twilight of the place strangely suiting with its almost sacred character. Openings between the outer columns seemed like arched...
Page 137 - A few wretched-looking huts and hovels, the dwellings of ' cockatooers,' who are not, as it might seem, a species of bird, but human beings ; who rent portions of this forest ... on exorbitant terms . . . and vainly endeavour to exist on what they can earn besides, their frequent compulsory abstinence from meat, when they cannot afford to buy it, even in their land of cheap and abundant food, giving them some affinity to the grain-eating white cockatoos.
Page 102 - Paul's Plains," fully appreciating the comfort of hard firm ground, albeit sometimes rough with rocks, my attention had for some minutes been engrossed by the graceful outlines of the distant hills on our left, and in watching the changes of effect caused by the passage of clouds across the sunlight, when, on looking again to the right, I involuntarily uttered a cry of astonishment and delight : — beyond a sort of promontory, in which one hilly...