404 
The Geology and Physical Aspect 
by the various creeks and rivers which have forced themselves a 
passage, and display the subjacent stratified rocks, which it may 
be conjectured formed the ancient surface of the country, and 
were the basis of a soil in general much less available than the 
present. At a period, perhaps not geologically remote, the ver¬ 
dant and diversified surface of Australia Felix, must have been 
disruptured by subterranean commotions, and enveloped in the 
smoke and ashes of active and powerful volcanos, whose livid 
streams have overspread so large an area of the country. These 
terrific visitations of ancient days have now however ceased ; 
every disturbance is passed away, and the once livid lava, cor¬ 
roded and broken up by the hand of time, is now covered by a 
productive soil, whose ample coating of perennial grass affords 
nourishment to millions of live stock, and is the basis of a thriving 
colony. 
Extinct Volcanos .—None of these hills are of any great height. 
Mount Elephant, one of the highest, is about 1,000 feet. All 
the volcanic hills which I have myself seen, viz. Pawndon, Mount 
Elephant, Mount Napier, Mount Eeles, and the craters or War- 
rion hills of Colac, are either partially or wholly surrounded at 
the base by ridges and heaps of stones, which in some instances 
extend over many square miles, or even leagues of country. 
These heaps, called by the settlers “ stony rises,” are extensively 
scattered throughout the country, and are usually around and in 
the vicinity of volcanos. Many hills, though destitute of the ap¬ 
pearance of any crater, are however partially strewed with pieces 
of lava and pumice-looking stone, similar to what may be seen 
within the craters of other hills of the district. Mount Eeles, about 
thirty miles N. E. of Portland, is a romantic and very remarkable 
crater. It is of an irregular serpentine form, between one and 
two miles long, and about a quarter of a mile wide, with a depth 
of 100 to 150 feet. There is a small lake of fresh water, about 
the centre at the bottom of the crater, and at one extremity an 
outlet several miles in length, which, descending gradually as it 
proceeds outwards, with tolerably erect sides, and a breadth of 
about sixty feet, winds like a canal through a continuous mass of 
trap rocks. The Warrion hills, situated between the lakes Colac 
