252 T. S. Hart : 



spicuousiiess of the Divide i^^ largely due to the fact that in 

 addition to the hill-shading there is the broken line used to 

 denote the county boundary. The boundiu'v is an actual fact in 

 the contiguraition of the surface, but without the hill-shading 

 would haA'e been shown in the same way as the point-to-point 

 lines which have to do duty as boundaries in >ouie parts of the 

 plains.-!- 



North-west of Ballarat is a. part of the range which Professor 

 Gregory particularly criticises. He presents what is said to be 

 an actual view of the country, and states that a number of 

 persons would vary considerably in their location of the Divide 

 at this point. I have put the question to a class of students 

 on the road between Blowhaird and Ascot, and though most of 

 them were quite unacquainted with the place they had no diffi- 

 culty in determining its position, and were all in agreement. I 

 have, however, good information that the photograph reproduced 

 in illustration was not taken on the Divide at all. Certainly 

 it does not truly represent the character of the Divide at this 

 point. 



Enough ha>^ probably been said to show that Murray cannot 

 be regarded as in any way responsible for the use of the term, 

 and that its use and the jjrominence assigned to it by tht 

 Lands Department is not, from their point of view, unreasonable. 



Professor Gregory goes further, and says that the Great 

 Dividing Range is " a misleading geographical myth." We 

 have seen that the Divide is certainly a.n actual fact ; the name 

 may be badly chosen, but it is ordinary current language, and 

 majkes no claim to be a scientific term. It does not seem to 

 have misled many scientific investigators, though it may have 

 been misleading in the teaching of geography by teachers with 

 little scientific knowledge. Professor Gregory attacks the 

 biological evidence. He depreciates the support of the^ 

 biologists by hinting that it biassed and selects out of the mass 

 of evidence, two items ivv his argument of disproof, the dis- 

 tribution of the eel and of the varieties of magpies. He says 

 that he has heard from fishermen of eels being taken from the 

 tributaries of the Murray ; so have most people, but unfor- 



1 See boundaries of the County of Kipon on the (Jcoloyical .Map of \ictoiiii. 



