28 Victoria as a Field for Geologists. 



but little, nay, which seemed rather likely to result in a 

 reoion especially blasted and desolate. 



"rhe philosopher, eager to trace the harmonious working of 

 cause and effect, could not but have been charmed to witness 

 the grand chain of events as hitherto developed, events 

 sublime in their monotony, and interesting even in their 

 sameness ; but the most enthusiastic optimist might be 

 excused for a feeling of despair whilst surveying what had 

 been done and what so far had resulted. It was (previous 

 to the era of these last igneous rocks) the chapter of Victoria's 

 history where all grew most confused, the act of the great 

 drama where all appeared most disheartening. There had 

 come to be a state of climate, of animal life, and of vegetable 

 existence, suitable to the wants of man ; but this especial 

 scene could surely never be rendered a fit place for man's 

 habitation. Many changes had occurred, but none seemed 

 for the better. In place of the desert of one rock there had 

 come to be the desert of another, or at best, wide arid wastes. 

 On the former, trees of stunted growth might stud the 

 surface. On the latter, a little gTass or heath, like that near 

 Brighton, would struggle for existence. Nature working so 

 slowly, yet so sui'ely, now seemed to have worked in vain, 

 and each new point rising above the waves appeared but as 

 a region of desolate rock, or gave rise by decomposition to 

 dreary dunes of blown sand. 



And then the time seemed to have been fulfilled. The 

 natural forces, which hitherto had acted quietly and silently, 

 now swelled the district into hills, and .split the surface into 

 chasms. A little smoke would give the earnest of the 

 coming storm, then a shower of ashes, thrown from a newly 

 formed crater, would blast the forest and overwhelm the 

 plains, and lastly, amid the thunders of volcanic eruption, 

 would be poured forth the stream of fluid lava. It would 

 flow onward in a desolating scorching flood. It would lay 

 long as a wide-spread molten lake, on which no breathing 

 thing could pass and live. Then, cooling slowly, the same 

 would remain for ages as a black cindery mass, a Sahara in 

 barrenness, a Gomorrah in desolation. 



Then, at last, just as the old granite hills slowly crumbled 

 and yielded their debris to form the lower rocks, so would 

 this solidified lava also be disintegTated into mould and clay,- 

 slowly but surely forming a soil above the indurate mass 

 below, and the succeeding changes of almost infinite ages 

 thus culminated in developing the fertile district of Victoria, 



