TOPOGRAPHY OF VICTORIA. 381 



tide resemble in their soft regularity the pulse of a sleeping child ; when a hot haze 

 settles down upon the scarcely definable horizon, and the hills inland lose the ordinary 

 sharpness of their outline by reason of the veil of vapour which softens their colour 

 and confuses their bulk ; Cape Bridgewater no longer the grim and austere buttress 

 against the encroaching waves "that lifted its awful form" above them when they were 

 lashing themselves into foam against its massive escarpment, and " lacing the black 

 rocks with a thousand snowy streams" seems to bask in the warm sunshine, and to be 

 enveloped in an atmosphere of peace and serenity ; while its caves, which are only 

 accessible when the sea is calm, are delightfully cool and shadowy by comparison with 

 the dazzling glare of the water, and the heat that radiates from the land. What is 

 known as "The Watery Cave" is just the sort of place where Stephano, in the "Tem- 

 pest," would have hidden the butt of sack which he rescued from the wreck, and 

 Caliban would have chosen for a hiding-place when he had done anything to subject 

 him to the displeasure of his sovereign lord and master. 



The coast from Cape Bridgewater to the mouth of the Glenelg trends in a north- 

 westerly direction. The country is of an undulating character ; hummocks of sand, marshes 

 and diminutive lakes of fresh and salt water, with a background of high land, for the 

 most part heavily-timbered, constituting its leading features. 



v 



MOUNTAINS. 



The most conspicuous feature of the mountain scenery of Victoria is an undulating 

 and devious spine, commencing at the eastern boundary of the colony, near some of the 

 sources of the Snowy River, dipping down into the valley of the Mitchell, then making 

 its re-appearance five and twenty miles to the northward, and curving round, like a bow, 

 to Kilmore, whence it stretches in a westerly direction to Mount Ararat, where it throws 

 out a few spurs and then stops short in face of the massive ranges which there run 

 from north to south. Upon the southern slopes rise the numerous rivers which discharge 

 their waters into the sea, while the northern flanks supply the various affluents of the 

 Murray. But in no case does the highest peak attain a loftier elevation than six thou- 

 sand one hundred feet above sea-level, although this altitude is exceeded in two instances 

 by spurs thrown off from the main or Great Dividing Range. These spurs are of 

 remarkable complexity in the eastern counties of the colony, in some of which (as, for 

 example, in Benambra, Tambo, Dargo, the north-western part of Croajingolong, Bogong, 

 the southern half of Delatite, Wonnangatta and Evelyn), the area of country occupied 

 by labyrinthine ranges probably exceeds that of the valleys and lowlands comprehended 

 within their limits. In many instances the mountains grouped together, independently of 

 the dorsal range, resemble in shape an octopus. From a central eminence between four 

 and five thousand feet in height, as at Mount Baldhead, Mount Bindi and Mount 

 Bowen, limbs are thrown out towards all points of the compass, terminating generally in 

 a bold declivity. Occasionally an isolated range will wriggle, snake-like, for a distance 

 of thirty or forty miles through an otherwise open country. At other times a mountain 

 chain will protrude short spurs, or foot-hills, at almost regular intervals, like the feet of 

 a caterpillar, to which its irregular contour will offer a certain fantastic and exaggerated 

 resemblance. Strictly speaking the Great Dividing Range is merely a continuation, or 



