yard at the time, as also a plantation of the Palma Christi, or Castor Oil tree, with the intention of sending home the berries or raw produce of the latter, to be pressed into oil in Europe. I had fully intended to visit their station again, before leaving Geelong, on my return to the district in 1846; for the vineyard, I was told, was then in full bearing, and an object of great interest and attraction to all intelligent persons in the neighbourhood: but as I had lost part of a day, from something having gone wrong with the machinery of the steamboat on the passage from Melbourne, and as we had still a journey of 37 miles before us for that day, after our return from our morning visit to the ladies of Barrangoop, in order to reach the point where I was to come up with the Melbourne Mail to Portland, on the evening of the fourth day's ride from Geelong, I was obliged to forego that pleasure. I regretted this the more from the probability of my visiting Switzerland, during my stay in Europe on my present voyage, and perhaps having it in my power to "airt" some more of the valuable emigrants from that country to Phillipsland-a land in which I am quite sure they would succeed incomparably better than in the United States, and the climate of which is beyond all comparison superior to that of any part of America. The vineyard of the Swiss vignerons at Geelong, produces already at the rate of 1000 gallons of wine per acre.

the

There was comparatively little cultivation among Barabool hills at the period of my first visit in 1843; and the scene in every direction from the summits of the hills we ascended was exceedingly beautiful-an undulating country, thinly wooded and richly covered with grass. But to me, at least, it was not interesting, simply because it was uninhabited. People may talk of natural scenery as they please, but it is man and his works that give an interest and a charm to the face of nature everywhere. God made the earth to be inhabited; and wherever it is not inhabited, it is a mere blank to man. There are now, however, a number of smiling farms in this part of the country, and land

which was purchased a few years ago, during the prevalence of high prices and general delusion, at from £2 to £4 an acre, perhaps ruining the purchaser for his folly, and exchanging owners at a great loss, is now leased to industrious small farmers at a yearly rental of ten shillings an acre.

On crossing the river, on my return from Barrangoop, at a natural ford where an embankment has been constructed for the double purpose of forming a road across the river and of preventing the fresh water above from being influenced by the tide water.below, I observed that the whole of the rocks of which the embankment was constructed consisted of vesicular trap, or cellular lava. This, indeed, is the general character of the rocks in the Port Phillip District: with us, in the Sydney or Middle District, it is the rare exception; the staple commodity in the article of rocks in that part of the territory being sandstone. "Man!" exclaimed a Scotch stone-mason from Dundee, on getting within the Heads of Port Jackson and seeing nothing around him but immense sandstone cliffs, "it's a gran' kintra for stane !"

CHAPTER V.

THE WESTERN PLAINS AND THE LAKES.

KARDINIA, Dr. Thomson's residence, is situated on the summit of the natural terrace to which I have already alluded, on the right bank of the Barwon, the garden occupying the steep declivity in front. It was one of the earliest habitations of civilized man in this part of the country, and as it was necessarily erected on Government land, on which, of course, it was not expedient to go to much expense, to tempt the cupidity of some rival competitor at the next Crown land sale, it was constructed of slight materials, and was not intended to have the character of permanence. But the hand of woman can give even "a bush house" an air of domesticity and neatness that imparts a charm to the wilderness and makes the solitary place rejoice. The shrubbery and the white-washed walls without, and the recently fresh-papered partitions within, with the other unequivocal traces of delicate female hands, did not require the adventitious aid either of books or of a pianoforte (although these were both in view) to proclaim that people of cultivated minds and refined taste were lodged within the bush cottage of Kardinia—a cottage which the reader must recollect was quite remarkable in the district in being able to boast a venerable antiquity of nearly ten years.

Although it was still early in the day when we returned from our morning visit to the ladies at Barrangoop, Mrs. Thomson was not likely to allow her husband and his friend to undertake a long journey on horseback on what the Scotch elder most appropriately

called "a cold collection."*

After partaking, therefore, of an early dinner, we mounted fresh horses and "took to the bush," the day of our departure being the 28th of January 1846.

The usual route from Geelong to Lake Colac is several miles to the northward of the course we pursued, and the land along that route for the first few miles, being the valley of the Barwon river, is considerably better; but as I had long been desirous of visiting the station of the Wesleyan Mission to the Aborigines, near the sources of the river, which was very little out of our way, we took the most direct course to, that station, and consequently stood somewhat, more to the southward. For a few miles the land we passed over, consisting of hill and dale, and forming a grazing station of Dr. Thomson's, was perhaps rather light for cultivation, but afforded very fair pasture. We then entered a beautiful pastoral country, nearly level though gently undulating, with only a few trees here and there, as far as the eye could reach. At the distance of fourteen miles from Geelong, we passed the dry basin of the Lake Murdiwarry, or Modewarre. Dr. Thomson had never seen it dry before, although he had been ten years in the country; but the summer of 1845 and 1846 was an unusually hot and dry season in all parts of Eastern Australia, and the month of January, corresponding to July in Europe, is generally the hottest month in the Australian year. Lake Murdiwarry is of a circular form, very shallow, and about six miles in circumference. The banks are formed into regular terraces all round, as if the water had once stood at a much higher level than it usually does now. It was the first lake of the kind I had ever seen, and I could form no satisfactory conjecture at the time as to its probable origin. It was evidently, however, of the same character and origin as the numerous circular lakes, all of much

* Collation.

smaller dimensions, which Sir Thomas Mitchell had discovered, in the year 1836, about a hundred and fifty miles to the westward, and I had no doubt that our further progress in that direction would throw some light upon the subject.

For the next fifteen or twenty miles our route lay across a succession of rich verdant plains, with here and there a slight undulation on their surface. Almost the only wood seen on these plains is what is called lightwood, or blackwood, by the Van Dieman's Land colonists. It resembles the apple-tree in size, and the orange, or rather the bay-tree in the character of its vegetation. I have never seen it in New South Wales, but it grows in Van Dieman's Land, and it is always the certain indication of land of the first quality for cultivation. A few ornamental trees of this kind, scattered irregularly over the surface of these beautiful plains, greatly enhance their beauty; while Mount Gellibrand, a volcanic mountain rising to the height of 560 feet above their general level, is seen to a great distance in all directions, and tends greatly to animate the scene. Mount Gellibrand was about ten miles to the northward of our route, and there was also another volcanic mountain-Mount Hesse-visible in the same direction, at a distance of about fifteen miles.

A few miles from the Mission Station, as we approached the sources of the Barwon, the country assumed a more variegated appearance, rising into beautiful sheep downs richly covered with grass, with here and there clumps of trees of graceful form and umbrageous foliage. I was beginning, however, to get very tired when we reached Buntingdale, the Mission Station, thirty-seven miles from Geelong, after a ride, without halting, of six hours and a half. People at home would think it rather unfair to task a horse at this rate; but the colonial horse accommodates himself remarkably well to the wants of his rider in "a land not inhabited;" for the only indication of civilization that we had seen the whole way, from the immediate neighbourhood of Geelong, was a post and rail fence