GEOLOGY OF NORTH GIPPSLAND, VICTORIA. 3 
If these notes are thought worthy of any consideration by geolo- 
gists, I shall feel that I am amply rewarded for any labour I may 
have undergone, and that the many days of wanderings and solitary 
encampment by night among the rugged mountains and precipitous 
defiles of the Australian Alps have not been in vain. 
GENERAL CoNSIDERATION OF THE DistTRICcr. 
The district to be considered may be described as being all that 
part of North Gippsland lying eastward of the Macallister River, 
and also that part of the Omeo country between the Great Dividing 
Range and a line drawn from Mount Gibbs to Mount Hotham. 
It is approximately 130 miles in length by 80 miles in width, or 
about 10,400 square miles in area. 
It is divided into two unequal portions by the Great Dividing 
Range. This mountain-chain has a general trend to N. 60° E. and 
S. 60° W., and conforms to the outline of the coast. It is not, how- 
ever, continuous in this course throughout; from Forest Hill to 
Mount Phipps it follows this direction, as also from Mount Hotham 
to Mount Howitt; but the intermediate portion les at right angles. 
From Mount Phipps the general direction of the Dividing Range is 
continued by a line of mountains, such as Mount Birregun, Castle 
Hill, and Mount Wellington, through which the rivers have cut 
-their course southward. From Mount Hotham the line of direction 
is similarly continued north-easterly by the Bogong Mountains and 
Mount Gibbs to Mount Kosciusko, which is on the Dividing Range, 
and the highest known mountain in Australia*. On this line also 
the Mitta Mitta and the Limestone Rivers have cut a passage through 
the highlands and flow to the northy. 
The Great Dividing Range, with the two extensions just noted, 
may be said to define the north and south limits of an extensive 
plateau, averaging a hundred miles in length with a width of twenty- 
five miles. The drainage of the north-eastern moiety falls into the 
river Murray, and that of the south-western moiety into the rivers 
flowing into the Gippsland lakes. 
The transverse part of the Great Dividing Range, which thus 
separates the two halves of what may be called the Omeo plateau, 
extends from Mount Phipps to Mount Hotham. It is comparatively 
low in elevation ; it falls suddenly into the Dargo River to the west, 
but has a gentle slope on the east towards Omeo. 
The ayerage elevation of the Omeo plateau is probably not less 
than 3000 feet above the sea-level; the highest point rises to 6508 
feet in Mount Bogong; and the lowest level is found in the Omeo 
* The heights of these mountains above the sea-level, as determined by the 
Geodetic Survey of Victoria, are as follows:— Mount Hotham 6100 feet, Mount 
Howitt 5715 feet, Castle Hill 4860 feet, Mount Wellington 5863 feet, Mount 
Kosciusko 7256 feet, and Mount Bogong (the highest mountain in Victoria) 
6508 feet. 
t+ The Limestone River, also called the Indi, is one of the sources of the 
river Murray. 
BZ 
