Page:An account of a voyage to establish a colony at Port Philip in Bass's Strait.djvu/42

( 17 ) ; indeed, the appearance of the eastern side of the island gives a very unfavourable impression of its value; a confused assemblage of rocky hills, heaped upon, and crossing each other in every direction, present themselves to the eye, like the waves of the ocean disturbed by the fury of contending winds and currents. These precipices are bare of vegetation, except where a starved brush-wood insinuates its roots between the rugged masses, of volcanic matter, or in a few spots where the industry of man has conquered the sterility of nature, and raised a scanty crop of barley or maize: as we recede from the sea-coast, however, the country improves, and affords many prospects of romantic grandeur, and luxuriant fertility. The town of Santa Cruz is built with tole-