And Soils of Victoria. 261 
largest proportionate extent of land adapted for agriculture, 
and partly in consequence of the geological and chemical 
influences that have either tended to render much of the best 
soil here capable of withstanding, without renovation for 
a long series of years, the, most severe cropping, or else 
established a condition of soil most favourable for the produc- 
tion of wine of superior quality. 
For a considerable period, Victoria, notwithstanding the 
gold discoveries, has been supposed to offer less inducements 
for the settlement of bona fide working farmers than some of 
the other colonies, more especially South Australia; and I 
believe that the great extension of agriculture in that pro- 
vince has resulted less from the fertility of the land, and the 
facility of its acquirement in small sections, than from the 
numerous class of agriculturists, with small capital, who have 
been attracted to South Australia in consequence of the 
superior advantages it has been supposed to offer to small 
farmers. 
The most remarkable characteristic of the physical confi- 
guration of this colony, when compared with that of any 
other Australian colony, is the great prevalence here of 
volcanic rocks and clay slates. Sir Charles Lyell has noticed 
the general fertility of soil produced from the disintegration 
of volcanic rocks, but in Australia the fertility of soil thus 
produced has often been found most extraordinary. For 
instance, in New South Wales at Prospect Hills, where a 
small dyke of trap traverses the sandstone, some of the soil 
derived from the trap was brought into cultivation before the 
close of the last century, and has ever since given good crops 
without manuring; yet this land does not display any symp- 
toms of exhaustion. On the trap formation at Ilawarra, I 
have heard of sixteen successive crops of wheat, having been 
taken off the same piece of ground, without the last crops 
having exhibited any falling off, as regards quantity or 
quality. Even the natural vegetation on soil derived from 
volcanic rock in Australia, is, almost constantly, more luxu- 
riant than on other soils. This is especially noticeable in the 
Blue Mountains, wherever the thick stratum of sandstone is 
displaced by dykes of trap; thus on the basaltic slopes of 
Mount Hay are found enormous trees, ferns, and luxuriant 
creepers, whilst all the surrounding mountain ranges and 
gullies, are only partially clothed with low scrubs. There is 
also a sudden and startling change on entering the trap for- 
mation at Ilawarra, from stunted eucalyptus and low bushes 
to lofty palm groves and semi-tropical vegetation. In this 
