Notes on the River Gordon and on the need for reservation of land along its banks

The River Gordon is about four miles distant from Sarah Island. Its entrance is narrow, with a bar, upon which there is a depth of water of about two fathoms, deepening almost immediately to 10 fathoms. The entrance to the river has now been well beaconed, and renders navigation safe.
Following the Elliott Range eastward, we next notice an elevated flat belt of open country, called the High Plain. Across this plain came Sir John and Lady Franklin and party, on their memorable overland journey from Hobart in 1842, piloted by the late Mr. James Erskine Calder, afterwards Surveyor-General of Tasmania.
There is a fine outcrop of limestone at Limekiln Reach, 12 miles from the river entrance, which in the early days was quarried and burned by a party from the Sarah Island establishment.
Pining was carried out in the Gordon and vicinity, and it will take at least a century for the young forest to mature again.
As roads are mostly non-existent, so trees are carried downstream by the river.
The source of the Gordon is in Lake Richmond.
under the shadow oi the King William Range, whence it flows through picturesque surroundings in the Rasselas Valley, making a long and graceful sweep round Mount Wright, which is known as "The Great Bend." The preservation of scenery in other parts of the world is receiving the greatest attention, and even in England a society has been formed for the preservation of Swiss scenery. How much greater is the necessity existent in a country like Tasmania, relying so much upon her tourist traffic, to preserve by every means within her power attractions without which such a traffic would diminish rather than increase, to the serious loss of the state. One hesitates to put this selfish aspect of the case before a learned society, but "necessity knows no law." and, after all, a public awakening may be better aroused by a proposition in this form rather than from a more scientific standpoint.