4 A. W. HOWITT ON THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY AND 
basin at 2374 feet, which is the height of Lake Omeo above the sea. 
I have excluded in this estimation the deep river-valleys draining 
this plateau which, as at Hagle Vale or Tom Groggin, are under 
1000 feet. 
From the Great Dividing Range and approximately at right angles 
to its course successive spurs extend towards the coast; these spurs 
separate the rivers which drain the mountains. Some of these 
rivers empty themselves into the Gippsland lakes, and the remainder 
directly into the sea*. The most easterly of these somewhat 
parallel ranges forms the western watershed of the Snowy River; 
this river rises in New South Wales on an extensive plateau, known 
as the Maneroo district, similar in character to that of Omeo, but of 
greater extent. The southern boundary of these highlands is well 
defined as the Coast Range, and, as is the case with the Great 
Dividing Range, conforms to the coast-line. The slope northward, 
forming the Maneroo tableland, is very gentle, while it is sudden 
and abrupt towards the sea. 
Commencing at Mount Phipps, the most southerly extension of 
the Great Dividing Range, near Omeo, a line of high land can be 
traced connecting it with the Coast Range. On this view the Omeo 
and Maneroo plateaux form one great tableland; these heights, 
commencing at Mount Phipps, are the Nunnyong Mountain, the 
Gelantipy tableland, Turnback Mountain, and the Bowen Mountain, 
where the Coast Range may be said to commence. 
From this Coast Range spurs run towards the seas, separating the 
waters of the Goungrah, Bem, Tamboon, Wingan, and Genoa rivers ; 
these spurs either end as promontory-like hills, or die away gra- 
dually in the marine Tertiaries. 
All the rivers which I have enumerated present certain marked 
features in common. The character of the valleys varies with the 
geological formation in which they have been excavated, and the 
course of the rivers is sharply divided into a torrent portion and a 
river portion; the latter commences so soon as the streams leave 
the hills and enter the fringing Tertiary area. Here the valleys 
have been excavated in almost horizontal beds of sand, clay, and 
coarse shelly limestone, and are wide and flat. 
The bottom of such a valley is usually occupied by a more or less 
wide stretch of alluvial soil, through which the river winds a slow 
and tortuous course. In other cases, such as the streams flowing 
into lake Tyers, the bottom of the valley is an estuary. 
Where the rivers debouche into the Gippsland lakes, they do so 
usually between two banks, or natural levels, which have been formed 
in the manner of a delta. That at the mouth of the Mitchell River 
extends on each side from the termination of the higher ground into 
Lake King. The one on the north side of the river is about twelve 
miles, and the one on the south side of the river about six miles in 
length. The two levels end at the same pointin Lake King. Each 
* Into the Gippsland lakes, the rivers Macallister, Avon, Mitchell, Nicholson, 
and Tambo; into the sea, the Snowy River, the rivers Buchan, Murindel, and 
Toonginbooka, 
