48 OBSEHVATIOXS ON EXTIN'CT VOLCANOES IN VICTORIA, 



or two we were all aroused by a fidgetty feeling as if the place 

 was alive with vermin. The fire had gone quite out. On hold- 

 ing lit matches near the fissures in the rock they went out 

 instantly. "We removed a little distance away and slept soundly. 

 Does this indicate another outburst, if these escape-valves, from 

 "which a current of odourless air flows," were by any means to 

 get shut up ? 



The lava, now consolidated into rock, is in many places so 

 smooth that one can walk or even ride a shod horse with com- 

 parative ease ; while in other parts the rocks form very rough 

 barriers. Wherever the lava has become decomposed sufficiently 

 to form even a thin layer of earth, grasses grow most luxuriantly ; 

 on these stock fatten very c^uickly. The rocky country, even in 

 the roughest parts, is generally studded with gum and light- 

 wood trees. 



Mount Napier, another volcanic hill, twelve miles north of 

 Mount Eccles, and of larger size, is round and hollow as a basin. 

 The walls rise very abruptly to about 500 feet above the sur- 

 rounding country. They are thin on the top and level all round. 

 There is a crater in the middle of the hill some 300 feet deep, 

 But no water ; large trees in the bottom and all round the sides. 

 The rocks extend fully three miles all round the hill, and from 

 the south side several streams have flowed south towards the 

 sea and disappear about seven miles distant in the Lake Condah 

 Swamp. There are two very fine streams of water which, when 

 I knew them first, ran on the surface for about two miles, and 

 were then lost. They continue on the surface now over four 

 miles, in the middle of the valleys through which the lava 

 formerly flowed. On the east of the mount and rocks there is a 

 large swamp known as Buckley's Swamp, the outlet running 

 N.W. towards Hamilton. 



Mount Rouse, about thirteen miles east of Mount Napier, is 

 much larger and of greater altitude than either of the former. 

 Judging by the depth of soil, " decomposed lava," and freeness 

 from rocks, all over the hill, I fancy the eruptions here must 

 have ceased long prior to those at Mounts Napier and . Eccles. 

 The crater, which has been of grdat size, is very much filled up 

 — doubtless by the corresponding iJeduction in the height of the 



