Flinders
and Bass.
1798.
hour before the moon passes over the meridian; and the rise of tide is from six to eight, or it is said to ten, feet. The ebb sets out seven hours; and both ebb and flood run with much rapidity in the narrow parts, but the particular rate was not ascertained.
Port Dalrymple and the River Tamar[1] occupy the bottom of a valley betwixt two irregular chains of hills, which shoot off north-westward, from the great body of inland mountains. In some places, these hills stand wide apart, and the river then opens its banks to a considerable extent; in others, they nearly meet, and contract its bed to narrow limits. The Tamar has, indeed, more the appearance of a chain of lakes, than of a regularly-formed river; and such it probably was, until, by long undermining, assisted perhaps by some unusual weight of water, a communicating channel was formed, and a passage forced out to sea. From the shoals in Sea Reach, and more particularly from those at Green Island which turn the whole force of the tides, one is led to suppose, that the period when the passage to sea was forced has not been very remote.
Of the two chains of hills which bound the valley, the eastern one terminates at Low Head; the other comes down to the sea, five or six miles from it, on the west side of the port. The ends of these chains, when seen from directly off the entrance, appear as two clusters of hills having some resemblance to each other; and in fine weather, the distant blue heads of the back mountains will be seen over the tops of both clusters. These appearances, joined to the
- ↑ So named by the late lieut. colonel Paterson, who was sent from Port Jackson to settle a new colony there, in 1804. The sources of the river were then explored, and the new names applied which are given in the chart. The first town established was Yorktown at the head of the Western Arm, but this proving inconvenient as a sea port, it was proposed to be removed lower down, near Green Island. Launceston, which is intended to be the capital of the new colony, is fixed at the junction of the North and South Esks, up to which the Tamar is navigable for vessels of 150 tons. The tide reaches nine or ten miles up the North Esk, and the produce of the farms within that distance may be sent down the river by boats; but the South Esk descends from the mountains by a cataract, directly into the Tamar, and, consequently, is not accessible to navigation of any kind.
