It was the 15th before we had completed for the present our survey of this part, owing as I have before observed, to the constant bad weather, which was doubly felt by the boats in which all the materials for the chart of this neighbourhood were collected.

CIRCULAR HEAD.

We now examined the coast to Circular Head, under the north side of which we anchored in 7 fathoms on the morning of the 18th, after spending a day under the South-East corner off Robbins Island, where we found good anchorage in westerly winds.  Making too free with the shore with a low sun ahead, we grounded for a short time on a shingle spit extending off the low point North-West from Circular Head.  Three quarters of a mile East-North-East from this point is a dangerous rocky ledge just awash, on which several vessels have run.  By keeping the bluff extreme of Circular Head open it may always be avoided.

The latter is a singular cliffy mass of trappean rock, rising abruptly from the water till its flattened crest reaches an elevation of 490 feet.

This strange projection stands on the eastern side of a small peninsula.  On the parts broken off where it joins the sandy bay on the north side, we found the compass perfectly useless, from the increased quantity of magnetic iron ore they contain.

It is on this point that the headquarters of the Van Diemen’s Land Agricultural Company are established under the charge of a Mr. Curr, whose house with its extensive out-buildings and park, occupying some rising ground on the northern part of the point, greets the eye of the stranger, to whom the reflection is forcibly suggested by the sight, that the natural graces of the scene, must soon yield to the restraining regularity with which man marks his conquests from the wilderness.  The name of this faint memento of home was, we were informed, Hyfield; a straggling village occupies a flat to the left, and in the bay on the south side of the head, which is the general anchorage, is a store with a substantial jetty.

English grasses have been sown at this establishment with great success, one acre of ground now feeding four sheep, instead of as before, four acres being required for one; the improvement in the grass was also made evident by the excellent condition in which all the stock appeared to be.

HYFIELD.

The garden at Hyfield was quite in keeping with the other parts of the establishment, and it was not a little pleasing to observe a number of English fruit trees.  I was told, however, that they suffered exceedingly from blight which was brought by the west winds.  In one corner that at first escaped my curiosity, so completely had it been shut out from the gaze of all by a winding bowery walk, I found in a sort of alcove, the tomb of a child; upon it lay a fresh bouquet of flowers, revealing that the dead was not forgotten by those who were left behind.  It was easy to divine, and I afterwards learned this