THE INTERIOR. 409 



holes, with sides so steep as to render it necessary 

 to cut through them to enable the cattle to drink, 

 that were distributed around as if formed by art, 

 rather than by nature. Westward, I saw the 

 winding course of the Glenelg, and was told that 

 some of the squatters had located themselves on 

 its banks, and that others were even talking of 

 stations, (which they have since made,) as far as 

 the volcanic mountains, Schanck and Gambler, 

 where there is some rich country, recently visited 

 from Adelaide, by Governor Grey, who has dis- 

 covered that the barrier of desert between New 

 South Wales and South Australia, is less marked 

 than was supposed ; there being patches of good 

 land intervening, so that at no very distant day, we 

 may hope to see the whole of the coast, from Port 

 Phillip to Spencer's Gulf, supporting a scattered 

 white population. 



I noticed that there was a vast superiority in the 

 soil on the north-west side of the hills ; but saw 

 none equal in richness to the five-mile patch at 

 Mount Eckersley. 



The steep sides of a part of the valley of the 

 Wannon, however, a few miles to the eastward of 

 the Sugar-loaf, are very fertile, and being clothed 

 with patches of woodland, form extremely pretty 

 scenery. The rocks of this part of the country are 

 chiefly trappean ; in the immediate neighbourhood 

 of Portland, thev consist of limestone, ferruofinous 

 sandstone, and trap. 



