The whales frequently go up the river Derwent as far as the town; and it is no uncommon sight for its inhabitants to behold the whole method of taking them, from the moment they are harpooned until they are finally killed by the frequent application of the lance.  This sight indeed has been occasionally witnessed by the inhabitants of Sydney; since it has sometimes occurred that a stray fish has entered the harbour of Port Jackson, while some of the South Sea whalers have been lying there, and that these have lowered their boats and killed it.

All the bays and harbours in Van Diemen’s Land, and most of those likewise which are in Bass’s Straits, and on the southern coast of New Holland, abound with these fish at the same season.  If the colonists, therefore, were not thus restricted from this fishery, it would soon become an immense source of wealth to them; and I have no doubt that they would be enabled to export many thousand tons of oil annually to this country.  But it is in vain that nature has been thus lavish of her bounties to them; in vain do their seas and harbours invite them to embark in these inexhaustible channels of wealth and enterprize.  Their government, that government which ought to be the foremost in developing their nascent efforts, and fostering them to maturity, is itself the first to check their growth and impede their advancement.  What a miserly system of legislation is it, which thus locks up from its own subjects, a fund of riches that might administer to the wants, and contribute to the happiness of thousands!  What barbarous tantalization to compel them to thirst in the midst of the waters of abundance!

Port Dalrymple.

This port, which was discovered by Flinders, in 1798, lies thirty degrees E. S. E. of Three Hammock Island.  The town of Launceston stands about thirty miles from its entrance, at the junction of the North Esk, and the South with the river Tamar.  It is little more than an inconsiderable village, the houses in general being of the humblest description.  Its population is between three and four hundred souls.  The tide reaches nine or ten miles up the river Esk, and the produce of the farms within that distance, may be sent down to the town in boats.  But the North Esk descends from a range of mountains, by a cataract immediately into the river Tamar, and is consequently altogether inaccessible to navigation.

The Tamar has sufficient depth of water as far as Launceston, for vessels of a hundred and fifty tons burthen; but the navigation of this river is very intricate, by reason of the banks and shallows with which it abounds, and it has been at length prudently resolved to remove the seat of government nearer the entrance of Port Dalrymple.  A town called George Town, has been for the last three years in a state of active preparation; and it is probable that the commandant, and indeed the entire civil and military establishments* of this settlement, have by this time