EUCALYPTUS TREES. 165 
might deserve the reflection of the Legislature, which 
allots to the pastoral tenants their expansive tracts of 
country, whether or not along with squatting pur- 
suits — indeed, for the actual benefit of the pastoral 
occupant himself the inexpensive first steps for gen- 
eral forest-culture in the woodless regions should be 
commenced. 
Within the ranges which produce these colossal 
trees but few habitations exist; indeed, we might 
traverse a line of a thousand miles as yet without a 
dwelling. The clime is salubrious ; within the shel- 
tered glens it cannot in excellence be surpassed. Hot 
winds, from which our exposed plains, as well as any 
rises of northern and western aspect, so much suffer, 
never reach the still-and mild vales of the forests ; 
frosts are only experienced in the higher regions. 
Speaking of Victoria especially, it is safe to assert that 
there alone many thousand square miles of mount- 
ainous country, timbered with Stringy-bark trees (Eu- 
ealyptus obliqua) are as yet lying dormant for any 
other but isolated mining operations. And yet, might 
not families which desire to strike out a path of inde- 
pendent prosperity, which seek a simple patriarchal 
life in a salubrious locality of seclusion, and which 
command the needful strength of labor within their 
own circle, choose these happy glens as their perma- 
nent abodes? Though the timbered rises of the ranges 
may be as yet unlucrative for cultivation, or even be 
sterile, the valleys are generally rich, irrigated by 
clear brooks, and spacious enough for isolated homes, 
and the limited number of pasture animals pertain- 
ing to them. The costlier products of culture might 
be realized, especially so in the Fern-tree glens ; tea, © 
