The Goulburn, at the crossing-place on the Sydney road, is fifty-six miles from Melbourne, and its junction with the Hume takes place about 100 miles farther down the river. The Ovens is 170 miles from Melbourne at the crossing-place, and it joins the Hume fifty miles farther down. The crossing-place of the Hume is about 220 miles from Melbourne; and the distance of the Murrumbidgee, where the Sydney road strikes that river, is 300 miles, or nearly half-way between Sydney and Melbourne.

But the Hume River receives various other tributaries before it forms a junction with the Murrumbidgee; as, for instance, the River Campaspe, which rises in the Mount Macedon and Mount Bunninyong Ranges, and the River Loddon, which rises on the western side of the latter range, and waters a large extent of fine pastoral country on its northward course to the Hume.

The southern ridges of the Pyrenees give rise to the Hopkins River, which, although it does not possess so classical a name as certain other of Sir Thomas Mitchell's discoveries, is nevertheless a valuable stream to the Australian grazier and agriculturist, as it pursues a southerly course for upwards of sixty miles through a rich tract of country, and falls into the Great Southern Ocean at Warnambool or Lady Bay, a recently-discovered harbour about sixty miles to the westward of Cape Otway.

The principal streams to which the Grampians give rise are the Glenelg River, and its main tributary the Wannon. The Glenelg issues from a gorge on the western slope of the northern Grampians, and pursues a due westerly course for about fifty miles, to within twenty-five miles of the western boundary of Phillipsland. It then takes a southerly course, and crossing the boundary enters the territory of South Australia a few miles from the ocean. After thus forming a comfortable Alsatia, or place of refuge for all evil doers from Phillipsland, in another colony where the officers of justice cannot follow them, without even requiring them to cross the river, it again crosses the boundary

into Phillipsland, and empties itself into the ocean a mile or two to the eastward of the boundary line, thereby performing the same acceptable service for all the villains of South Australia-for there are such characters it seems even in that colony, notwithstanding its unexceptionable origin-by forming another Alsatia for them, within the territory of Phillipsland.

The Wannon rises on the eastern slope of the southern Grampians, the base of which it skirts till it sweeps round Mount Sturgeon, from whence it pursues a due westerly course of from sixty to seventy miles, through a splendid country, equally adapted for pasture and for agriculture, till it falls into the Glenelg, about forty miles inland from the mouth of the latter river.

The northern Grampians originate a third river, called the Wimmera, besides two or three other minor streams, which pursue a northerly course to the Murray.

The Rifle Range also originates several minor streams, some of which fall into Portland Bay, while others find their way into the Glenelg; and the River Barwon, which rises in the Marrack Hills near Cape Otway, and waters, in its circuitous course of upwards of 100 miles, a splendid tract of country, empties itself by a series of beautiful picturesque lakes, the resort of innumerable black swans, into the Southern Ocean, a few miles to the westward of the entrance of Port Phillip.

Besides these, there are a number of minor streams and torrents that traverse the country in various directions, some of which will be mentioned in the sequel. This enumeration, however, will be sufficient to show that Phillipsland is by no means as has sometimes been alleged by disappointed emigrants, whose failure is to be ascribed either to their own mismanagement, or to circumstances altogether independent both of the soil and climate—a badly watered country. There are, doubtless, no navigable rivers in the whole territory, for the Glenelg River has no practicable outlet; and, although according to Captain Sturt, the Hume is navigable below the crossing-place, while the Murray is navigable for its whole course, the mouth of the latter

river is also hermetically sealed against any possibility of ingress from the ocean. In such circumstances, I cannot conceive that the navigation either of the Hume or of the Murray, traversing, as the latter of these rivers does, a large extent of country of hopeless sterility, can. ever be of any utility to the future inhabitants of Phillipsland. But the world has happily outgrown the necessity for internal communication by means of rivers. From the peculiarly level character of a large extent of its surface, and the practicability of approaching on that level to the very roots of all its principal mountain-ranges, there is no part of the British dominions so well adapted for the construction of railways as Phillipsland; and as the indigenous timber of the country has been pronounced, by competent judges, perfectly suited for the construction of these means of internal communication without the addition of iron rails, there is no part of her Majesty's dominions in which they can be made available at so small an expense. In short, it cannot be doubted, that if the future emigration to that extensive territory should be at all adequate to its means of affording a comfortable settlement for a numerous and industrious population, Phillipsland will, in a period of time comparatively short, be traversed in all directions by cheap wooden railways, which will prove conducive, in an incredible degree, to the rapid development of its vast resources, and the comfort and convenience of its future inhabitants.

As to water for other purposes, there are extensive tracts to the westward, where excellent water can be found by digging for it at a few feet from the surface; and in other localities, in which that article of prime necessity is at present rather scarce, the gentle undulations of the land and the numerous torrents, of which the channels are dry in summer, afford remarkable facilities for ensuring a permanent and abundant supply by artificial means at the merest trifle of expense. squatter in the Western District, whose station was crossed by a torrent of which the channel was generally dry in summer, observing a narrow gorge in its

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course, threw an embankment across it and dammed up the water after the next rains; thereby securing, at an expense, as I was told by my intelligent informant, of not more than five pounds altogether, an abundant and permanent supply of excellent water for his establishment, and forming an ornamental sheet of water of upwards of a mile in length in the immediate vicinity of his premises.

CHAPTER II.

HISTORY AND PROGRESS OF THE SETTLEMENT.

THE discovery of the magnificent inlet of Port Phillip was not allowed by the British Government of the day to remain in abeyance. On the contrary, it was determined that it should be turned to immediate account; and, with this view, Lieut.-Colonel Collins, of the Royal Marines, who had been Judge-Advocate and Secretary of the colony of New South Wales from the period of its original formation, was furnished with a large body of convicts, and troops direct from England, in the year 1803, to form a subsidiary penal settlement, of which he was appointed commandant, in that locality. Colonel Collins, however, had a discretionary power, in the event of his finding it impracticable to form such a settlement on the shores of Port Phillip, to transfer his whole establishment to those of the Derwent River in Van Diemen's Land. Colonel Collins accordingly arrived in Port Phillip towards the close of the year 1803, and proceeded to form a settlement on the eastern shore of the harbour, near its entrance. The land in that locality, however, is exceedingly sterile, and fresh water very scanty. In such circumstances, an intelligent officer, invested with the extensive powers which Colonel Collins possessed, would have deemed it his duty to institute an immediate and minute examination of the shores of so extensive an inlet, to ascertain whether there was any part of the surrounding country available for the purposes of man. But Colonel Collins did nothing of the kind; but resolving at once, and without further inquiry, that in Port Phillip, from Dan to Beersheba,