EUCALYPTUS TREES. 201 



might deserve the reflection of the Legislature, which 

 allots to the pastoral tenants their expansive tracts of 

 country, whether or not along with squatting pur- 

 suits — indeed, for the actual benefit of the pastoral 

 occupant himself the inexpensive first steps for gen- 

 eral forest-culture in the woodless regions should be 

 commenced. 



Within the ranges which produce these colossal 

 trees but few habitations exist; indeed, we might 

 traverse a line of a thousand miles as yet without a 

 dwelling. The clime is salubrious ; within the shel- 

 tered glens it cannot in excellence be surpassed. Hot 

 winds, from which our exposed plains, as well as any 

 rises of northern and western aspect, so much suffer, 

 never reach the still and mild vales of the forests ; 

 frosts are only experienced in the higher regions. 

 Speaking of Victoria especially, it is safe to assert that 

 there alone many thousand square miles of mount- 

 ainous country, timbered with Stringy-bark trees (Eu- 

 calyptus obliqua) are as yet lying dormant for any 

 other but isolated mining operations. And yet, might 

 not famiiies which desire to strike out a path of inde- 

 pendent prosperity, which seek a simple patriarchal 

 life in » salubrious locality of seclusion, and which 

 command the needful strength of labor within their 

 own circle, choose these happy glens as their perma- 

 nent abodes ? Though the timbered rises of the ranges 

 may be as yet unlucrative for cultivation, or even be 

 sterile, the valleys are generally rich, irrigated by 

 clear brooks, and spacious enough for isolated homes, 

 and the limited number of pasture animals pertain- 

 ing to them. ' The costlier products of culture might 

 be realized, especially so in the Fern-tree glens ; tea, 



