Imágenes de página
PDF
ePub
[merged small][merged small][graphic][merged small]

Abrupt, on the south-eastern extremity of the Grampian range, and beheld from the edge of an almost perpendicular precipice, 1,700 feet in height, vast open plains, bordered with forests and studded with lakes. 66 Certainly a land more favourable could not be found. Flocks might be turned out upon its hills, or the plough at once set agoing upon its plains. No primæval forests require to be first rooted out here, although there is as much timber as could be needed for utility or ornament." Australia Felix is one of the few regions in which the sanguine expectations of the discoverers have been realized.

It will be found on examining a map of the province of Victoria and of the Melbourne district, and a most excellent one has been published by Mr. Ham, of Melbourne,—that it has three natural divisions. The central division, including Australia Felix and Mount Alexander, finds its natural port and capital in Melbourne. The western division, including Portland Bay, for want of a better harbour, finds its outlet chiefly at Geelong. The eastern division, including Gipps's Land, finds partly an outlet at Western Port; but Gipps's Land must export and import through Alberton.

Victoria has many streams and rivulets, but no rivers navigable in the European sense of the term.

Gipps's Land was discovered by Count Strzelecki, C. B., who is equally eminent as a scientific traveller and philanthropist. The honour has been claimed by Dr. Lang for a stockman, who communicated his discovery to his employers some months before the count published his report. This is probable. Stockmen have been the first explorers of most of the finest pasture districts of Australia; but it is contrary to the custom and interest of squatters to make such discoveries public.

In the count's report to Sir George Gipps he says, "Seventeen miles S.S.E. from Lake Omeo, a beautiful stream, the first of the eastern waters, soon assumed the breadth of a river, and appeared to be a guide into a country hitherto unoccupied by white men. A hilly country closes the valley, narrows the river banks, and brings the explorer across the mountain ridges to an elevation whence there is a view of the sea on the distant horizon; to the south-east an undulating country, with mountain ridges to the north-east. Approaching or receding from the river, according to the windings of its bordering hills, the descent into a noble forest is effected. A series of rich pasture valleys, prairies, and open forests, are intersected and studded with rivers, lakes, and wooded hills; the pastures opening out and sloping towards the sea." Strzelecki describes Gipps's Land, viewed from Mount Gisborne, as resembling a semi-linear amphitheatre, walled from north-east to south-west by lofty picturesque mountain scenery, and sloping towards the south-east down to the sea.

In 1840 Strzelecki was engaged for twenty-six days in cutting his way through the scrub-covered ranges between Gipps's Land and Western Port, was obliged to abandon his packhorses, and he and his party did not escape without imminent danger both from famine and exhaustion.

In 1844 Mr. Haydon, with a party of twelve able-bodied men, including black native police, was instructed by the government to open up a practicable route for cattle from Western Port to Gipps's Land. He has published a very interesting account of his expedition, with some spirited illustrations. He was engaged thirty days in the task, and he, too, very nearly perished in the scrub; yet he considered himself well repaid for the famine and fatigue he had endured "by the sight of the fine plains-Barneys Plains of the map-beyond the Glengarry." The good country lies upwards of fifty miles from the government township of Victoria, founded on the Albert River.

THE LYRE BIRD OF GIPPS'S LAND.

353

It is the opinion of Mr. Haydon that the greater part of the scrub country through which he travelled would be capable of cultivation if cleared. This scrubby tract is nowhere found in Victoria except between Gipps's Land and Western Port.

[graphic][subsumed][merged small]

It was while performing this journey that he had an opportunity of closely examining the shy and curious lyre bird (Memora superba), which is peculiar to Australia, and only found on the south-eastern The settlers sometimes called it a pheasant, but it is in reality one of the thrush family. The lyre bird is so extremely shy that even the enthusiastic researches of Mr. Gould did not enable him to ascertain satisfactorily its breeding habits and the number of its eggs.

coast.

"I was awakened," writes Mr. Haydon, "at sunrise by the singing of numerous pheasants. These are the mocking-birds of Australia, imitating all sounds that are heard in the bush in great perfection; they

are about the size of a (small) fowl, of a dirty brown colour, approaching to black in some parts; their greatest attraction consists in the graceful tail of the cock bird, which is something like a lyre. But little is known of their habits, for it is seldom they are found near the dwellings of civilized man.

"Hearing one scratching in the scrub close to the dray, I crawled out, gun in hand, intending to provide a fresh meal for breakfast. The sun, having just risen, inclined it to commence its morning song; but the natural note (bleu bleu) was almost lost among the multitude of imitative sounds through which it ran-croaking like a crow, then screaming like a cockatoo, chattering like a parrot, and howling like the native dog-until a stranger might have fancied that he was in the midst of them all. Creeping cautiously round a point of scrub, I came in view of a large cock bird, strutting round in a circle, scratching up the leaves and mould with his formidable claws, while feeding upon a small leech which is the torment of travellers, and spreading open his beauteous tail to catch the rays of the sun as it broke through the dense forest. As I raised my gun, a piece went off within six feet of me: it was one of the black police who had blown the bird's head off that had been amusing me for more than an hour."

These birds when disturbed never rise high, but run off into the densest scrub, scarcely allowing a sportsman time to raise his piece before they are out of his reach. Even the aborigines, who are so skilful in creeping up to game of all kinds, seldom kill more than three brace in a day. Their song is not often heard during rain, or when the sun is obscured. "The nest is about three feet in circumference, and one foot deep, having an orifice on one side: they lay but one egg, of slate colour with black spots. The female is a very unattractive bird, having but a poor tail, nothing like the male.”

Gipps's Land, with its boundary of snow-capped precipitous mountains, its fine plains, many lakes, and temperate climate, may be considered as one of the several contrasts of soil, climate, and vegetation, of which Darling Downs, Moreton Bay, Illawarra, and Bathurst, each afford different examples-variations which deserve more minute examinations than we can afford space to give, but which may be studied in the travels of Mitchell, Sturt, Leichardt, and Strzelecki.

In the last stage of Mr. Haydon's expedition he passed some hours over grass-tree plains, which, although picturesque, present a very dismal idea to the settler, as where they grow,—and they are found throughout the coast range of the three colonies,—the district may be pronounced barren, except to the botanist.

[merged small][merged small][graphic][merged small]

"The grass (Xanthorhoea) trees are from two to four feet, the crown of the leaves about four feet, and the flower-stem rising out of the midst of the fibre-like foliage from four to six feet."

CHAPTER XXV.

SOUTH AUSTRALIA.

SOUTH AUSTRALIA-MOUNT LOFTY-MOUNT BARKER-CITY OF ADELAIDE THE RIVERS MURRUMBIDGEE AND MURRAY-NAVIGATION OF THE MURRAY-CALCULATION FOR STEAM TRAFFIC-VARIOUS BIRDS OF SOUTH AUSTRALIADESCRIPTION OF ADELAIDE-MINES OF COPPER, LEAD, SILVER, AND GOLDTHE BURRA BURRA-STATISTICS OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA.

[ocr errors]

HE River Glenelg, flowing into the sea, marks the natural boundary between the province of Victoria and that of South Australia, thence embracing a seaboard of about fifteen hundred miles, into which no river navigable by vessels of burden flows, and only two ports have, as yet, been found capable of safely accommodating ships of burden. As

« AnteriorContinuar »