394 AUSTRALASIA ILLUSTRATED. 



scrub and marshy pastures, in which nothing is seen but the ridgy backs of the cattle 

 rising above the tall coarse herbage on either bank ; and presently there breaks upon 

 the view a broad expanse of gray>green water, ten miles long and eight miles wide, 

 surrounded by low banks and receiving the confluence of the Avon and the Perry, which 

 come downward from the north. A natural canal, handsomely fringed with lofty scrub, 

 which has acquired the title of Macmillan's Straits, gives admission to Lake Victoria. 

 This is narrower but longer than its neighbour, and offers the same tame scenery until 

 Raymond Island is reached, where one arm of the Lake bends downward in a southerly 

 direction to the Lakes' Entrance ; and another, taking a northerly and westerly trend, 

 expands into Lake King, which, after rounding the attenuated promontory known as 

 Eagle Point, exchanges its appellation for that of Jones's Bay. Here, too, the Mitchell, 

 which has received in its course the waters of the Wonnangatta, the Dargo and the 

 \Ventworth, pours itself into Lake King on one side of it, while the Nicholson and the 

 Tambo bring their tribute to it on the other side. 



From Tambo Bluff to Jemmy's Point, and thence, indeed, to Cunningham, at the 

 Lakes' Entrance, the banks on the left are higher, generally wooded, and not wanting in 

 picturesqueness. But upon the other shore, where a passage has been cut through a 

 narrow tongue of land to the ocean, in lieu of the present fluctuating and precarious 

 outlet, the sand hummocks thrown up by the sea are scantily sprinkled with ti-tree 

 scrub contorted into fantastic attitudes by their struggle for existence with the fierce 

 wind which so often beats inward from the south. A narrow spit of sand bars the 

 egress of the waters of the Lakes, except at one spot, where a chronic conflict is being 

 waged between the current and the waves. The latter are continually casting up a sanely 

 dyke as if to imprison the outgoing waters ; but ever and anon the combined force of 

 many rivers, gathered together at this point, breaks through the unstable barrier and 

 graves a channel for their pent up volume. Under such circumstances, coasting vessels 

 endeavouring to enter or to leave the Lakes are often detained for weeks together, to 

 their great detriment and occasional danger ; this led to the construction of an artificial 

 outlet, the plan for which was designed by Sir John Coode. This has only recently 

 been completed, and has already proved of immense advantage to the farmers, lumberers 

 and fishermen of an extensive district rich in natural resources. 



The road from the Lakes' Entrance to Lake Tyers climbs over the saddles of two 

 hills with deep glens between them, where the undergrowth is massed together in close 

 battalions of lofty and leaf-wreathed hazel scrub, and the wild cherry and the native, 

 honeysuckle tree mingle their foliage with that of the wattle, the eucalyptus and the shag- 

 moss. Here, too, the pale lavender and faded pink tints of patches of dead ti-tree, looking 

 like enormous bunches of delicate coral, together with the greenish azure of the blue- 

 gum sucklings and the white blossoms of the cauliflower scrub, lend an acceptable 

 variety to the otherwise uniform colour of the sylvan scene. Then the devious track 

 crosses a bit of naked moorland a lofty promontory overlooking a wide expanse of sea 

 and dips down presently to the beach itself, traversing a narrow strip of glittering 

 sand which constitutes the southern boundary of Lake Tyers. This is the most beau- 

 tiful sheet of water in south-eastern Victoria. Its distinctive charm consists in the 

 irregularity of its outline and in its lofty banks, feathered with foliage to their very 



