THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 181 



definition leaves us in some doubt as to its eastern boundary. 

 Seeing that much of the country lying to the east of the Loddon, 

 Campaspe, and Goulburn, is so similar to the Mallee country, it 

 might reasonably be said that the north-west region extends even 

 to the Lower Ovens. Be this as it may, the great bulk of the 

 north-west is covered by the Mallee, and this very characteristic 

 scrub is more or less precisely contained, in as far as this State is 

 concerned, between the Loddon and the South Australian 

 border, and between the Murray and a line running from Mount 

 Egbert, near Korong Vale, through Mount Arapiles. It occupies, 

 in fact, part of that great estuary into which in the dim past the 

 Darling, the Murrumbidgee, and the Murray entered as indepen- 

 dent streams. At no point within its area does the height above 

 sea-level rise to as much as 500 feet, the average being hardly 

 more than half of this, and Sea Lake, though nearly 200 miles 

 from the sea, is only 176 feet above it. The surface of the 

 country consists of belts of more or less good land, mainly of a 

 light and porous character, separated by low sand-hills running 

 generally in a south-east to north-west direction ; the whole over- 

 lying beds of limestone and occasionally quartzites and ironstones, 

 which follow the contour of the country, and are nowhere very 

 far from the surface. These beds are ascribed by Professor 

 Gregory to the evaporation of subterranean waters containing 

 bicarbonate of lime, alkalis, and iron salts, which are left behind 

 as the water is drawn through the sand by the great heat of the 

 sun. 



Considering the flatness of the country, the small rainfall, and 

 the nature of the soil, it is not to be wondered at that the water- 

 courses have no visible outlet to the sea, all of them ending in 

 lakes or dying away in the sand in their unsuccessful efforts to 

 reach the Murray. The general appearance of the country is not 

 so monotonous as one would expect. The low undulations, 

 clothed mainly with Eucalyptus gracilis and E. incrassata, with 

 clean, bright foliage and abundant blossom, are relieved and 

 diversified by salt flats covered with saltbushes and bordered by 

 patches of blazing Mesembrianthemum and by the frequent ridges 

 and sand-hills, where the pines are most often in evidence. 

 These handsome trees, of which most of the oldest specimens 

 were killed in the latest drought, give sometimes quite a park- 

 like aspect to the scene. Often, too, the sand-ridges, being more 

 or less bare of all else but coarse grass and occasional small 

 plants and shrubs, give the impression that the sea is close at 

 hand, and time and again one is found straining one's ears for the 

 sound of the surf, which it is difficult to think is not beating on 

 their further side. 



The flora of the north-west, which I was able to study on the 

 spot for the first time during a stay at Jeparit in the latter 

 half of October, is perhaps more interesting than that occurring 



