TOPOGRAPHY OF VICTORIA. 383 



whence it pursues a serpentine course, under the name of the Bowen Ranges, until it 

 reaches its most southerly point in the amphitheatre where the Mitta Mitta River 

 gathers together the springs which form its source. Southward, a remarkable offset 

 shoots out, about ten miles in length, with Notch Hill (over- four thousand six hundred 

 feet in height) half-way between the main system and Mount Baldhead (four thousand 

 five hundred and seven feet), as its points of greatest elevation. From this, as from a 

 ganglion, radiate in all directions subsidiary ranges, which in their ramifications resemble 

 the distribution of the nerves in the human body. The Great Divide, doubling back to 

 the north, reaches its greatest altitude at Mount Hotham (over four thousand feet), 

 which is another ganglion, sending forth its plcxtts to the north. The Barry Mountains, 

 running almost in a straight line due west, serve as a connecting link between Mount 

 Hotham and Mount Howitt (over five thousand seven hundred feet), above which the 

 main range bends round to the south, resuming its westerly course at Mount Selma ; 

 and pursues it thence, with numerous fluctuations, until it dips into a marshy plain a 

 few miles beyond Ararat, at the western extremity of which the Grampians, the Serra 

 and Victoria Ranges, running from north to south, constitute an independent system. 



For picturesque variety the Bogong Range can scarcely be surpassed, even in the 

 Alpine region to which it belongs, teeming as it does with lofty peaks and softly- 

 rounded domes, solitary heights which no human foot has trodden from the foundation 

 of the world, and deep ravines and moist valleys, with springs and streams which main- 

 tain a perpetual verdure by their never-failing water. During the winter months the 

 summits of the higher mountains are clothed in robes of dazzling snow, stainless as an 

 infant's soul, which glitter like helmets and cuirasses of plated silver in the sunlight, 

 and have a weird wan beauty that has something spectral and eerie in it when the 

 moon touches them with a pallid lustre. They impress the mind less, perhaps, by 

 majesty of form than by magnitude of substance. A chain seventy miles in length, and 

 culminating in a peak attaining the elevation of six thousand five hundred and eight 

 feet, sends out lateral ranges to the eastward from fifteen to twenty miles in extension, 

 numbering its spurs by hundreds, and giving birth to innumerable water-sources, swollen 

 to the dimensions of rivers directly the snow begins to melt at the beginning of the 

 summer ; and if, as has been said, " loveliness of colour, perfection of form, endlessness 

 of change and wonderfulness of structure are precious to all undiseased human minds," 

 we may find them all combined in this lonely and lovely district. Under all the vicissi- 

 tudes of the season, and in all hours of the day, the colour of the mountains prefers 

 an indisputable claim upon the admiration. Under some aspects it is an intense purple, 

 and there is a suggestion in it of softness and smoothness of texture, as if the hills 

 were apparelled in sumptuous velvet or sheeny plush ; at other times the hue is a 

 turquoise blue, variegated in the shadowy recesses by a deep emerald green. Again, the 

 lofty landscape will be enveloped in a filmy veil of vapour, very tender in tone, and 

 analogous in tint to the first reek of a peat fire, as it issues in spiral wreaths from the 

 chimney of a highland shieling when the braes are purple with the changing heather. 

 As to form, the variety is endless, and the beautiful curves of the flowing lines are 

 charmingly broken in upon and diversified by sharp peaks, by granitic pinnacles, and by 

 the acute points of broad-based pyramids. Not only so, but at the very summit of the 



