12IO 



A US TRA LA SI A ILL US TRA TED. 



lifting its snowy head four thousand feet above the sea, and parting with its immense 

 proportions the wooded valleys through which the rivers Cleddau and Arthur career to 

 the sea. It is fit associate for the neighbouring peaks of the Barren Ranges, which rise 

 to an altitude of five thousand one hundred and twenty-five feet, and from one of whose 

 lower ridges the lovely Bowen Falls precipitate themselves into the Sound. No known 

 cascade in this marvellous region can compare with them. Springing clear of a rocky 

 ledge on the mountain side, the stream alights, at a distance of seventy feet, upon a 

 craggy projection, and thence with redoubled violence plunges downward in one broad 

 sheet through a sheer descent of four hundred and seventy feet, churning up the waters 

 at its base into a tornado of foam and spray. The hoarse murmur of the falling torrent 

 is the only sound that breaks the heavy slumberous stillness of this solemn place. As 

 we recede once more from the Falls, even this dies away, and an awful silence succeeds. 

 Still another water-fall has more recently been discovered, and named after the discoverer 

 the Sutherland Falls ; wonderful tales have been told of its height and volume, but an 

 official report has not yet been offered on the subject. 



And here we terminate our description of a country whose magnificent scenery will 

 for ages to come evoke panegyrics from writers, and incite artists to attempt the 

 impossible feat of reproducing Nature in all her grandeur and loveliness ; a country 

 whose invigorating climate, splendid position, generous soil and boundless resources indi- 

 cate that it is destined to be the home of a free, powerful and enlightened nation, to 

 which may with justice be applied the Latin motto, " Vires acqnirit citndo." 





