TOPOGRAPHY OF VICTORIA. 



369 



from the land, and the sea casting up sand-banks as it comes rushing in. At the 

 mouth of the Albert lies a little fishing-town, which has taken its name from the River. 

 It is peopled by a hardy race 

 of boatmen, to whose exer- 

 tions the metropolis of Vic- 

 toria is partly indebted for 

 its supply of fish. 



Unfortunately their sources 

 of livelihood are precarious 

 in the extreme, especially du- 

 ring the summer months, 

 when it not unfrequently hap- 

 pens that the entire consign- 

 ment is ordered to be de- 

 stroyed, in consequence of 

 not reaching the market in a 

 condition fit for human con- 

 sumption. There are numerous indications of coal in the surrounding district, and hopes 

 are confidently expressed that this portion of Victoria will become famous for its collieries. 

 Some rich patches of gold have been struck at the foot of the Middle Range, and the 

 neighbouring forests yield an abundance of the finest timber. About twenty years ago 

 the Government expended a large sum of money in the erection of a pier at Welshpool, 

 in order to facilitate the shipment of the produce of the surrounding country, but it 

 was shortly afterwards burnt down ; it is believed, by an incendiary ; only a mass of 



charred timber serves 



THE PIER, PORT ALBERT. 



to mark its site and 

 commemorate the 

 disaster. 



From the entrance 

 to Corner Inlet the 

 coast-line runs down 

 nearly due south for 

 a distance of more 

 than five-and-twenty 

 miles to the extremity 

 of a mountainous 

 peninsula, having an 

 average breadth of 

 sixteen miles, and ter- 

 minating in the bold 

 headland known as 

 Wilson's Promontory. 



On the eastern side it is indented by Sealer's Cove and Waterloo Bay, between which 

 the land juts out so as to form four prominences, entitled Horn Point, Hobb's Head, 



FI5 



ALBERT. 



