150 A Physical Description 



lofty, bare, and cloven summits of quartz rock and syenite, 

 and are divided by darker gullies, the beds of which are 

 furrowed by the torrents" (Strzelechi, p. 69). The green- 

 stone and basaltic spur which divides the Forth from the 

 Leven, and that which stretches to Cape Grim on the 

 extreme north-west, are all equally rugged and wild. South of 

 Lake St. Clair there is a spur which divides the valleys of 

 the Gordon and King Rivers, which empty on the west coast. 

 This culminates in the mountain called Frenchman's Cap 

 (4756 feet). The country in this neighbourhood is very 

 little explored, and it is of wild and picturesque character. 

 Another spur makes a semi-circular curve to the eastward, and 

 divides the basins of the Huon and Derwent Rivers, ter- 

 minating in Mount Wellington (4166 feet). The chain 

 beyond these two spurs bends in a south-easterly direction, 

 sending forth minor spurs, and, with Mounts Adamson 

 (4017 feet), La Perouse (3800 feet), Bathurst Range, and 

 Wilmot Range, barren mountains, standing out conspi- 

 cuously from various parts, until the axis terminates at 

 South Cape. 



The above is only a very general idea of the mountain 

 system of the island, which is more or less picturesque and 

 ruggedly uneven throughout. As the west and south coasts 

 are not settled upon except by a few scattered families of 

 splitters, and as it has been very little explored, much 

 has to be learned about the physical structure and geology 

 of the mountain system of Tasmania. I have not specified 

 all the offshoots from the main chain. Thus the north-west 

 spurs send off two westerly offshoots in succession, one of 

 which divides the Arthur and Pieman Rivers, and another — 

 the Eldon Range (4789 feet) — dividing the Pieman, and its 

 tributary the Murchison, from the King River, which flows 

 into Macquarie Harbour. The south end of this port receives 

 the River Gordon, which drains the north side of another 

 spur from the Wellington Range. The southern side of this 

 spur drains by many tributaries into the Huon. Mount 

 Picton (4340 feet) is one of the highest peaks of this very 

 little known mountain chain. 



The general aspect of these mountain ranges is picturesque 

 in the extreme. The summits of the hills are for the most 

 part bare, and studded with romantic crags and precipices. 

 Where the soil is derived from greenstone, and not too 

 precipitous, the forest is extremely dense. The gigantic 

 Eucalyptus amygdalina and E. obliqua grow thickly with 



