. / L'STRALASIA ILL USTRA TED. 



Bogong Ranges, as is the case 

 also in the Dargo Ranges, 

 which run parallel to them, 

 there are grassy plains of 

 considerable extent, from 

 four to six thousand feet 

 above the level of the sea, 

 undulating in surface and not 

 altogether bare of timber. 

 From these lofty plateaux 

 the descent into the valleys 

 beneath is precipitous, tim- 

 bered thickly in some places, 

 and clothed with a dense 

 scrub in others. The struc- 

 ture of these mountains is 

 full of interest to the geo- 

 logist. According to the 

 careful study of the district 

 made by Alfred W. Howitt, 

 the explorer (who worthily 

 sustains the good name he 

 has inherited from William 

 and Mary Howitt), the bed- 

 rock is composed of lower 

 silurian shales and sand- 

 stones, with metamorphic 

 schists of granites. Above 

 these occur the gravels, sands 

 and clays deposited there in 

 the miocene age, overlying 

 which are beds of lava, 

 constituting the plains pre- 

 viously spoken of, the highest 

 peaks consisting of palaeozoic 

 rocks. Some of ti\z. plateaux 

 are described as presenting 

 the appearance of having 

 been " paved with five-sided 



blocks of stone, and in some 



of the mountain sides, where 



land-slips have taken place, are acres covered with jumbled heaps of five-sided logs of 

 basalt." As the thickness of the volcanic outflow amounts in some places to seven hun- 

 dred feet, it is reasonably concluded that this could not have been poured forth in a 



