THE NEW COLONY 317 



mountable. One of its earliest visitors, the Polish Count Strzeleoki, 

 viewing it from the summit of Mount Gisborne, says it resembled 

 an amphitheatre walled from north-east to south-west by lofty and 

 picturesque mountain chains, and open towards the south-east, 

 where it faces, with its sloping area, the uninterrupted horizon of 

 the sea. The limit of settlement, in Mr. Latrobe's early days, 

 eastward of Melbourne had not extended much beyond Dandenong, 

 though deflected southward a few scattered settlers had taken up 

 country for stock in the neighbourhood of Cranbourne and around 

 the margin of Western Port Bay. Their eastward progress had 

 been arrested by the dense and apparently interminable forests 

 covering the low ranges, in attempting to avoid which they fell in 

 with a succession of treacherous swamps, heavily skirted with an 

 almost impenetrable thicket of ti-tree and rotting vegetation. 

 From the northern end of the Dandenong Eanges the great barrier 

 of the Australian Alps spread away to the head-waters of the 

 Murray, and defied the efforts of adventurous stockmen to cross. 

 From the New South Wales side squatters, who had received re- 

 ports from the blacks of a fine open, grassy country beyond the 

 ranges, tried in vain to approach it. One or two had pushed their 

 way as far south as the Omeo high plains, and had found a well- 

 grassed country, but a severe winter climate.' It was from this point 

 that the first vigorous attempt to penetrate to the vaunted paradise 

 of graziers was made. The man who succeeded, after many re- 

 buffs, and who has the strongest claim to be called the discoverer, 

 was Angus McMillan, a stalwart and resolute man from the Isle of 

 Skye, who had only been a little over a year in the colony, and was 

 at this time in charge of the Corrawang Station as overseer. His 

 first attempt, made in May, 1839, in company with one native 

 black, though it resulted in little in the way of discovery, gave him 

 a fair idea of the difficulties before him and stimulated further 

 action. After five days of toilsome struggle through scrubby 

 ranges, he reached a peak he called Mount McLeod, from the 

 summit of which he had a view of the sea in the direction, as 

 he thought, of Corner Inlet, his only guide being an early copy of 

 Flinders' chart of the coast. His black companion, who had pro- 

 fessed to know the country, got alarmed at the traces of wild 



