CHAPTER I. 
Physical Geography. 
The Cordillera and its Spurs . Boundaries of Victoria, 
Mountain Systems . River Systems. Drainage Areas. 
A Cordillera, or mouutain chain, conforming approximately in 
direction to the eastern and south-eastern coast lines of Australia, 
extends from Cape York, the extreme northern point of the 
island-continent, through Queensland and New South Wales iuto 
Victoria, which latter territory may be described as comprising the 
south-eastern portion of Australia, and including — under existing 
orographicai conditions — the southern terminal spurs of the 
Cordillera. 
The boundaries of Victoria are — on the west, the 141st meridian; 
on the south and south-west, the sea-coast from the 141st meri- 
dian to Cape Howe ; on the north-east, a line from Cape Howe 
to Forest Hill, a lofty point of the Cordillera which there passes 
into Victoria; and on the north, the Murray River, from its source 
near Forest Hill to the 141st meridian. The total area of the 
colony is computed at 87,884 square miles, the extreme length 
east and west being about 420 miles, and the greatest breadth 
north and south 2o0 miles. 
From Forest Hill the Cordillera trends south-westerly to a 
point near St. Clair, between the head waters of three of the 
principal rivers of Victoria, namely, the Yarra, falling into Port 
Phillip; the Goulburn, joining the Murray; and the Thomson, 
running into the La Trobe River, a few miles above where the 
latter enters the Gippsland Lakes. From St. Clair, a great spur 
of the Cordillera extends through the colony, in a general direction 
slightly north of west to the Glenelg River, near the South Aus- 
tralian border, where the range slopes down to the low-lying and 
nearly level country, of which the western margin of Victoria from 
the sea to the Murray principally consists. The Grampians, 
which include the Sierra, the Victoria, the Duudas, and the Black 
Ranges, constitute the terminal western points of this mountain 
chain. 
Another spur, which will for the sake of distinction be here 
termed the Southern Spur, branches from the Cordillera at 
Si. Clair, and extends southerly, but in a very zig-zag manner, to 
Wilson’s Promontory, the extreme southern point of Australia. 
This spur is not so conspicuous a mountain chain as the western 
range, but is of geographical importance, being really a portion 
of the water-shed lino oxtending from the extreme northern to the 
extreme southern point of Australia. 
