TOPOGRAPHY OF VICTORIA. 



407 



neighbourhood of Ben Nevis, and augmented in volume by a number of creeks from 

 the Pyrenees and the Grampians, the Wimmera flows in a north-westerly direction until 

 in the vicinity of Longernong it sends off a branch, locally known as the Yarriambiack 

 Creek, which eventually disappears in the malice scrub surrounding Lake Corong. Beyond 

 Horsham the main stream bends round to the north, flows into and out of Lake 

 Hindmarsh, goes by the name of Outlet Creek between this and Lake Albacutya, 



THE JUNCTION OF THE RIVERS MURRAY AND DARLING. 



resumes that appellation in quitting the latter, and disappears amidst the sand-hills which 

 emboss the surface of the arid plain beyond the last-named lake. The Avon, which 

 heads to Mount Navarre, and receives the Richardson a river that ceases to flow 

 entirely during seasons of protracted drought runs into Lake Buloke, four miles north 

 of Donald, and this is subject to the same infirmity as its tributaries, as it is some- 

 times dry for years together. The Avoca, which takes its rise in the amphitheatre 

 formed by the Great Dividing Range in the neighbourhood of Ben Major, and has one 

 of the most beautiful birthplaces a lover of the picturesque could desire to see, flows 

 through an equally beautiful country during the earlier portion of its course. The 

 valleys are bright with verdure, and the hills in some places are table-topped, in others 

 softly rounded and carpeted with succulent grasses ; while here and there among the 

 recesses of the ruggeder of the mountains are hidden deep romantic ravines masses of 

 rock piled up in fantastic confusion and caves in which hermits or bushrangers might 

 find all the seclusion they could desire. By-and-by, however, as the Avoca flows north- 

 ward, its banks become less and less picturesque, until, at a point almost twenty miles 

 due south of the junction of the Loddon with the Murray, the stream dwindles down 

 to a mere thread of water, and then disappears in the malice scrubs of Tatchera. 



