Tasmania contains an area of 26,300 square miles, so that she is a little smaller than Scotland, and a little larger than Greece. Her population on January 1st, 1885, was 130,541. Her total revenue was £549,000. She had 215 miles of railway open, and she was constructing 160 miles. Her exports were valued at £1,475,000, and her imports at £1,656,000. All English fruits--such as the strawberry, the raspberry, and the apple--grow with a marvellous profusion, and the hop industry flourishes. [Illustration: ON THE RIVER DERWENT.] SECTION III. AUSTRALIAN LIFE AND PRODUCTS. CHAPTER X. HEROES OF EXPLORATION. TRAGIC STORIES--FLINDERS AND BASS--ADVENTURES IN A SMALL BOAT--DISCOVERIES--DISAPPEARANCE OF BASS--DEATH OF FLINDERS--EYRE'S JOURNEY--LUDWIG LEICHHARDT--DISAPPEARANCE OF HIS PARTY--THEORY OF HIS FATE--THE KENNEDY CATASTROPHE--THE BURKE AND WILLS EXPEDITION--ACROSS THE CONTINENT--THE DESERTED DEPÔT--SLOW DEATH BY STARVATION--LATER EXPEDITIONS. [Illustration: NATIVE ENCAMPMENT.] [Illustration: A NEW CLEARING.] The story of Australian exploration is for the most part of a tragic character. Great geographical results have been achieved, but the price has been paid in great sacrifices. The records of success are saddened by many episodes of disaster and of death. The tale of heroism and suffering begins with Bass and Flinders, two young men who have left their names writ large upon the map for ever. They went out in 1795 with the second Governor of New South Wales, Bass as surgeon of the ship Reliance, and Flinders as midshipman. The two were soon friends; they had an equal love of adventure, and the new circumstances in which they were placed fired their ardent imagination with the hope of discoveries that should benefit mankind, if not bring reputation to themselves. Never did enthusiasts set to work with more scanty material. With a little boat eight feet long, and a boy to help, they cleared Sydney Heads, and faced the unknown Southern Ocean, and mapped out a section of the Australian coast. They used to row or sail as far as they could in the day, and at night throw out a stone, which served them as an anchor, and lie at these primitive moorings till daylight. Many were their narrow escapes by sea and shore.