462 Reviews — R. B. Smyth — Goldfields of Victoria. 



the sources of tlie Eiver Tarra, and on the plains of the Lake Dis- 

 trict, the character of the vegetation is altogether different when we 

 approach the well watered parts. Where the soils are deep and 

 rich, and the rainfall is generally heavy and the climate moist, we 

 find trees as large as any in the world. In the deep recesses of the 

 mountains, near the sources of the Yarra, the mountain ash (Fagus 

 Cunninghami) attains a height of 300 feet, and the Eucalyptus Amyg- 

 dalina quite 400 feet ; and all around is covered with a dense under- 

 growth of Tree-ferns and shrubs, which overshadow streams that 

 never, even in the driest season, cease to flow. 



" Leaving the hot and sultry streets and suburbs of Melbourne in 

 the midst of summer, when the air is like a blast from a furnace 

 and the ground is baked or beaten into dust, we can in a few hours 

 reach a tract which is always green, always moist, and where bub- 

 bling streams, fed by mountain springs, flow with noise and sparkles 

 over pebbly beds to the main river, — where the rich green of the 

 fern leaves and fronds mixes in delicate harmony with the less bril- 

 liant tints of the sassafras and the musk, and where steep and lofty 

 mountains, even in mid-day, cease not to cast their shadows over 

 the clefts whence the waters take their rise (p. 16). 



"The country to the east is mountainous, with here and there 

 majestic masses of granites and schists. The higher peaks and 

 passes are covered throughout a greater part of the year with snow, 

 and are nearly always capped with clouds. Turbulent streams run 

 through narrow gorges, and dense foliage extends from the flats to a 

 height of nearly 3,000 feet. On the higher parts, where vegetation 

 is nearly absent, or poor and scanty, we find, in the colder seasons, 

 but bare rocks, snow, and ice-bound streams, and, in the spring, 

 much that reminds the Yictorian traveller of almost forgotten Alpine 

 scenery. Towards the west and north-west the country is low and 

 level, the streams are sluggish, the rainfall is uncertain, and but 

 small in amount ; the summer season is intensely hot, and the 

 evaporation is ordinarily so much in excess of the natural supply 

 from the heavens, that lakes and waterholes in many places present 

 an appearance s uggestive of great cyclical changes in the climate " 

 (p. 15). 



The Victoria' the Serra, and the Grampian ranges are composed 

 of vast masses of thick-bedded sandstones, probably of Upper Palaao- 

 zoic age. " Bold, abrupt cliffs of a somewhat peculiar character, 

 due to the horizontality of the beds, give a marked character to the 

 landscape, and the rather smooth outlines where the rocks have 

 worn away gradually in the trend of the streams, present pictures 

 which are delightful to the eye of the artist. The peaks of Mount 

 William, on the edge of the Palseozoic mass and abutting on granite, 

 are as hi gh as 5,000 and 6,000 feet, but in the Dundas range, further 

 westward, the hills are not higher than 1,524 feet" (p. 11). 



Here is a description of a Salt lake, the origin of which seems 

 due to volcanic action : — 



" Gnotuk, the waters of which are about 130 feet below the level 

 of BuUeen-Merri, is bitterly salt. The drainage area is small, and 



