MISCELLANEOUS EXTRACTS

Southland Times, Issue 953, 18 May 1868, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS EXTRACTS

Disgraceful Practice.— On Sunday last (says the "Argus), on St. Kilda beach, Mr Hetherington, EHzabeth-streot, picked up a bottle which contained a slip of paper, on which the following was written with a blue pencil, the writing being rough :—" January 31, 1868, off Wilson's Promontory. Ship Alarm, from Bremen, ninety-nine days out. Sinking fast, not expected to live an hour. All passengers resigned to their fate. Prayers on the main deck. Remember me to mother.— W. H. E. Stickers. Chief Mate." The inquiries we have made lead us to suppose that this is a hoax — of a heartless kind, it is true, but too common. No vessel of the name was expected from Bremen — from which port, indeed, no Bhip ever came to Melbourne. No ship from that port was likely to bring such a number of passengers as seems to be alluded to, and a voyage from Bremen was not likely to be made in the time Btated. The ship, if she had made such a •voyage, unless disabled before passing the Heads, was not likely to be found off Wilson's Promontory.* Above all, however, no bottle thrown from a vessel at twelve hours' hard steaming distance to the eastward of Cape Schanck could ever have floated in two months to St. Kilda beach. It must have gone westwards with the set of the current, and so round the world, before it could have got to the entrance of Port Phillip Bay. The Eaelt Explobees of Poet Phillip.— From the Hamilton correspondent of the "Coleraine Albion" we learn that a work has been undertaken by Mr Lindsaye Clarke, district surveyor of Portland,, which will likely save from further destruction or loss the few memorials of the earliest explorers in the Western district, Sir Thomas Mitchell and his party. "He is having the explorers' tracks mapped on the official records of his office, and is taking steps to enclose such of the marked trees as were left by the explorers, and are now known to remain. One of these is at Mount Sturgeon, near Lake Repose. Although it has been burnt by many fires, and is branchless, the greater part of the inscription remains legible to this day. The name of the second in command, Mr Stapleton, and the date (1836) when he remained near it to recruit when Major Mitchell pushed on to Mount Macedon on his return journey, can still be read: the tree is 8 large red gum, and is likely to last many years to come. The other is near Woodford, on the Glenelg. It marks the spot where the boat was launched, by which the exploration of the lower part of the river was made. The spot was named Fort O'Hara by Major Mitchell, and its exact locality wa3 not known until the whereabouts of the marked tree was described by Mr Duncan M'Eae, scab inspector, a very old western settler."