Page 465 - for-the-term-of-his-natural-life

house, where soldiers from the barrack on the mainland
relieved each other night and day; and on stages, set out
in the water in either side, watch-dogs were chained. The
station officer was charged ‘to pay special attention to the
feeding and care’ of these useful beasts, being ordered ‘to
report to the Commandant whenever any one of them
became useless”. It may be added that the bay was not inno-
cent of sharks. Westward from Eaglehawk Neck and Woody
Island lay the dreaded Coal Mines. Sixty of the ‘marked
men’ were stationed here under a strong guard. At the Coal
Mines was the northernmost of that ingenious series of
semaphores which rendered escape almost impossible. The
wild and mountainous character of the peninsula offered
peculiar advantages to the signalmen. On the summit of
the hill which overlooked the guard-towers of the settle-
ment was a gigantic gum-tree stump, upon the top of which
was placed a semaphore. This semaphore communicated
with the two wings of the prison—Eaglehawk Neck and
the Coal Mines—by sending a line of signals right across
the peninsula. Thus, the settlement communicated with
Mount Arthur, Mount Arthur with One-tree Hill, One-tree
Hill with Mount Communication, and Mount Communi-
cation with the Coal Mines. On the other side, the signals
would run thus—the settlement to Signal Hill, Signal Hill
to Woody Island, Woody Island to Eaglehawk. Did a pris-
oner escape from the Coal Mines, the guard at Eaglehawk
Neck could be aroused, and the whole island informed of
the ‘bolt’ in less than twenty minutes. With these advan-
tages of nature and art, the prison was held to be the most

For the Term of His Natural Life