CHAPTER XXV—

Bruce Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 3097, 8 September 1899, Page 6

CHAPTER XXV—

Contintjsb.

The fact was, that the intelligence':which': Trenoweth read in the Melbourne paper was the first that was sent from the scene of tbe find, ami, of course, it| was not generally known. -..- ; ■-..-■ ■ '. '■ ''. ;-. At daylight in the morning Edward set off •lone for the district in which he knew from previous experience that tin was to be found. He was going to play a lone hand, so to •peak, for-he had'certain idean of his own.' For some time he followed the course of the Emu River and was particular to note the appearance of the country. The district was sparsely settled, and he passed stretches of magnificent agricultural land. With a perfect climate and rich soil, he thought the place should be a second Eden. Belts of forest containing giant eucalypti were passed through ; and, as night came on, Trenoweth attested a suitable place to •amp. He had oovered fully twenty-five miles in his march, and was now is the neighborhood of the new find. A short distance ahead Mount Valentine lowered four thousand feet high, and a long range of great altitude ran from it for fifty miles along the coast. Tho range was thickly wooded, and numerous rivers ran from it on both sides. The rainfall to support so many large •beams was, of course, great, but that would be all the better for tin-mining operations. Next morning Trenoweth reached the spot where he had previously obtained such favor- j able indications. It was as he had seen it last. As he stood in a deep gaily he eonld see the misty peaks of the huge range rising one upon another until the rugged heights were lost in the oloud-cappsd distance. As he looked he decided to ascend Mount Valentine and obtain a panoramio view of that strange west land of Tasmania. Far to the south the scow-topped French. man's Cap pierced the clouds with its hood •f eternal snow, looking down in its marble purity on thai sin-stained spot, Macquarie Harbor, for ever infamous in British annals. Btill further south another peak in veiled drapery lifted its mighty bead to tho ikies. This, he concluded, from the map he ear* tied, was Mount Humboldt. Far as vision lay, crested mountains raised their heads to heaven, and to the west he could see the whits-tipped rollers of the Southern Ocean. Although he was at such an altitude, a hnge backbone, almost on a level with tbe mountain on which be stood, ran across the Island from north to south ; and it seemed to the spectator that between it and the coast, if mineral treasures existed on the globs, they would be found there. Tbe whole vista was clothed in a level green sward, it seemed, except in odd places where the bare, scarped granitic peaks of the mountains reared themselves in desert solitude, as if desirous to leave the everlasting clinging embrace of vegetation. In a hundred places Trenowetb could trace in silvery streaks tbe course of creek* and rivers, which flowed in tortuous courses to the sea. In placas they appeared to get lost in the primeval forests, which clothed their sides, and then come winding out like a huge python in search of prey. To his left was the lake country, that queer " terra incognita "—so to spsak on the very verge of settlement. Trenoweth could not help reflecting, as hs leaned against a huge boulder in the pure rarified air in which he was, on the slumbering apathy of a people who allowed their great inheritance to thus he waato. To the active man it seemed a sort of •acriiege that, in a small island, the best portion of the country should only be known as the home of the former convict and bush, ranger. He bad read, certainly, strange stories of attempted escapes from the penal station of Macquarie Harbor, and how men became cannibals in order to support life in that inhospitable west coast; but, as he looked, he thought it must surely have been tbe licence of the novelist which prompted such narratives. To the young man it seemed as if all nature smiled and held forth with outstretched hand her choicest gifts to those who chose to take. He little thought at the time that from his vantage point on Mount Valentine he was looking down on one of the richest spots on God's earth. The day waß to come when the secret places of the dim forest would be bared and the roar of mining machinery would awaken the echoes of the surrounding hills a&d dells.