On Railway Gradients. 119 



selected." This is an assumption not in the power of the 

 writer to prove, as I fearlessly assert that in all adopted lines 

 permanently surveyed, the lowest crossing of the range has been 

 a desideratum imperatively enforced. The lowest practicable 

 crossings of the range have been found. 



In another pamphlet, addressed to the Melbourne Chamber 

 of Commerce, the writer in sketching out proposed routes of 

 lines to the Gold Fields, states : — " It is evident therefore, that 

 the best course would be by Keilor to Gisborne, letting the line 

 diverge from Gisborne to Ballaarat, as near as possible to 

 Blackwood on one side, &c." 



I imagine, the author could not at the time of writing this, 

 have ever left the immediate vicinity of Melbourne : as I ven- 

 ture to declare that a more impracticable country than that 

 from Gisborne to Ballaarat via Blackwood, cannot be found on 

 the face of the earth : range towers above range, and preci- 

 pitous gullies are replaced by broken craggy cliffs and rocky 

 chasms. Examining this country from the valley of the Ler- 

 derderg, this truth is strikingly apparent, and every one who 

 knows the locality will fully acquit me of the slighest ex- 

 aggeration. 



Persons having a knowledge of the interior of this country, 

 are aware how singularly abrupt and sudden is the rise of the 

 table land. I cannot offer a better illustration corroborative of 

 this fact, than the country in immediate contiguity to Bacchus 

 Marsh, where the table land rises from an elevation of 500 feet, 

 to an altitude of 1330 feet above low water, Hobson's Bay ; and 

 this occurs in a distance of 6 J miles. The ruling gradient, 

 according to a ride before quoted, is here 1 in 41. 



The Gold Fields of Victoria, are nearly all situate to the north 

 of a high mountain range traversing this province from east 

 to west. Possessing the attractions of wealth, population, and 

 enterprise, they naturally constitute a most important feature in 

 considering the routes of lines ; and, as no railway can approach 

 them without first crossing this high land, familiarly known as 

 the Coast Range, it becomes a matter of great interest and no 

 small moment to the engineer, to know which is the most 

 favourable point for doing so. In describing the contour of 

 Victoria, on either side of the mountains, I shall commence by 

 glancing at the country immediately south of them, taking 

 Melbourne as the great centre from which all lines will radiate. 



Melbourne appears, on a cursory examination of the map of 

 this colony, to be the centre of a vast amphitheatre, the outer- 

 most confines of which is the Dividing Range, most distinctly 



