562 F. DEBENHAM. 



nature of a hill system. For the purposes of description 

 we may divide the island roughly into two areas :— 



(i.) The Coastal Strip— narrow and low on the eastern 

 side, broader and covered with high sandhills on the western 

 side, and narrowed almost to extinction in the south-eastern 

 corner where the plateau extends right to the coast. 



(ii.) The Plateau Area— which occupies the inland por- 

 tions of the island, and from an average height of 200 feet 

 in the northern and central divisions rises to 500 feet in the 

 south and east, and presents a bluff aspect to the sea. 



The general low relief is responsible for the monotonous 

 appearance of the island as viewed from the sea, so different 

 to the bold outlines of the Furneaux Group, or even of the 

 Hunter Group only 50 miles to the south-east. It has the 

 effect also of giving King Island a unique if somewhat un- 

 interesting type of scenery consisting of stretches of flat 

 country unrelieved by anything inure imposing than occas- 

 ional belts of heavy timber. In the south-eastern portion 

 however, we do meet with a miniature of the steep fern- 

 gullies, scrub-clad ravines, and general rugged contours so 

 typical of West Tasmanian scenery. 



Owing to the constant rainfall, a number of small streams 

 make their way from the plateau area to the sea on all 

 sides. Those in the northern half of the island are short 

 and sluggish, and affect the contour of the country but 

 little. Those in the southern half, however, are more 

 interesting as giving evidence of importance as to the stage 

 of peneplanation reached. Of these the Ettrick, the Grassy 

 and the Fraser Rivers are the most typical and the courses 

 of each show all the phenomena of a youthful stage of 

 degradation. 



For watersheds of such low relief their gradients are 

 fairly steep, and their courses comparatively straight. AH 

 three, but more especially the Grassy River, have carved 



