118 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 
or Mt. Arapiles, at every few miles he will come across a band 
of sandy, sterile country, known locally as ‘the scrub,” and 
contrasting strikingly with the imtervening fertile areas. In 
the county of Lowan, these desert strips of land are particularly 
well marked, running in a generally north and south direction 
for many miles, nearly parallel with each other. The sand 
in them is very heavy, especially in places, where it seems to be 
heaped up in extensive mounds, looking in the distance like walls of 
ant to the dismay of the unfortunate traveller who has to pass oyer 
them. The parallel lines are on the whole, continuous, few breaks 
occurring, though at intervals the sand becomes much lighter. 
The vegetation is of the scantiest, and confined to dwarfed, 
straggling, stringy bark trees, and stunted, almost leafless shrubs. 
When i in the midst of such, a lonely, dreary region, it is difficult 
to realise that not far off, a complete change in the character of the 
country takes place, Such is the case, howevel. and the desert 
bands are bounded by areas of rich agricultural land, the value of 
which is well shown by the fact of its being all selected and cultivated 
while the scrubs are unoccupied and neglected. If the county map 
of Lowan, showing in colour the land selected, is examined, the 
extent and direction of these sandy wastes can easily be made out, 
by the parallel blanks which occur, the colored portions being the 
good land, and the blank strips the scrub. On going once ‘trom 
Spring Hill to Maryvale, I crossed one of these belts of scrub, and 
the scene was so desolate and the sand so heavy, that I cola 
scarcely believe it possible that I had taken the right road. 
Suddenly, however, I came into a well-grassed, fertile region, with 
farm houses here and there visible—in an hour more, I was again 
struggling through the sand of another and exactly similar 
wilderness. 
Starting from the Mallee fringe, and going southwards to the 
Glenelg, the roads keep these sandy tracts almost all the way, haying 
been marked out in the first instance by the early settlers, who, when 
going for supplies, preferred the sand in the winter, as they thus 
avoided the boggy, crab-holey ground on either side. 
On the whole, these sandy belts are elevated slightly above the 
adjoining country. This may be remarked of a ridge running south 
from Mortat, of another a few miles to the east, and of a third in a 
line with Mt. Arapiles. Between this last mountain and the Black 
range, north of the Glenelg, and also between the Dundas and 
Victoria ranges south of this river, similar sandy strips are met 
with. In the last mentioned locality however, they are easily 
accounted for, as sandstone rock crops out in their midst, In the 
county of Lowan this is not often the case ; in the Mortat line, the 
sandstone is below the surface ; in the Mooree and Kadnook lines 
it is visible above it, though only to a slight extent. That the 
