402 AUSTRALASIA ILLUSTRATED. 



when the uprooted poles are laid upon the cross-bars of the "bins," and the nimble 

 fingers of women are busily occupied in shredding the golden flowers, and children busy 

 themselves in the heaped-up bines, and the air is filled with the subtle aroma of the 

 hop is more picturesque than any vintage, except, perhaps, in Tuscany : and even when 



The tented winter field is broken up 

 Into that phalanx of the summer spears 

 That soon shall wear the garland, 



the spire-like piles of. packed poles are interesting features in the landscape, because they 

 are eloquent of the bounteous crop that has been gathered in, and suggest the verdure 

 and beauty of the coming spring. 



The Avon, which takes its rise in the county of Tanjil, flows in a south-westerly 

 direction through the fertile plains of Gippsland until it enters Lake Wellington at the 

 same northerly point at which the smaller stream called the Perry joins it. The 

 Thomson flows along the foot of a lateral chain of hills springing from Mount Lookout. 

 Where this ends it unites its waters with those of another stream the Aberfeldy which 

 has pursued a parallel course on the opposite or eastern side of the same range, and 

 having been re-inforced by the Macallister a tributary that has drained a considerable 

 tract of mountainous country to the north the Thomson empties itself into the Latrobe, 

 about three miles to the south of Sale. The Latrobe rises among the southern slopes 

 of the great spur, which branches off abruptly near Mount Matlock, running down in a 

 south-easterly direction, and almost in a straight line, as far as Mount Baw Baw ; it 

 then doubles back again so as to form two sides of an acute triangle, within which is 

 enclosed some of the most beautiful scenery in Victoria, and afterwards pursues a sinuous 

 course until it terminates in the huge masses of the Dandenong. 



At the apex of this triangle, on its inner side, there is an elevated plateau ; and 

 almost under the shadow of Mount Baw Baw the waters of the Yarra take their rise. 

 At that elevation, magnificent forests of beech-trees appear to have supplanted the 

 eucalyptus, to a very great extent at least, and add greatly to the charm of the land- 

 scape. At the birthplace of the River, upon which the natives bestowed the title of the 

 Everflowing, numbers of little streams of pure cold water, which " sparkle out among 

 the fern to bicker down a valley," combine to form a rivulet not more than twenty feet 

 wide. Through a shallow valley, shadowy with stately beeches and tall tree-ferns, the brook 

 goes singing on its way, until, all of a sudden, it finds an outlet into a valley at a 

 much lower level, and with a succession of leaps, by which it forms a series of fine 

 cascades as pleasant to the eye as to the ear, it effects a descent of something like a 

 thousand feet. After this its course lies along the bottom of a deep ravine, the precipi- 

 tous sides of which, varying in height from one to two thousand feet, are heavily tim- 

 bered, the trees springing from a matted undergrowth of scrub. About fifteen miles 

 below the falls the River reaches a small mining township which has received the name 

 of Reefton. This is the highest point of the stream at which there are any inhabitants, 

 or wherewith there is regular communication. For the next thirty miles of its serpentine 

 course the scenery upon its banks is extremely picturesque. It hurries along over boul- 

 ders and shingle, and " bubbles into eddying bays and babbles on the pebbles," receiving 

 numerous tributaries which come . tumbling down the steep slopes completely hidden from 



