Page:An account of a voyage to establish a colony at Port Philip in Bass's Strait.djvu/69

( 44 ) rock, vegetables are seen to adhere, which appear to derive their nourishment from the moisture of the air alone. Here are many picturesque valliesvalleys [sic], narrow, but winding along the base of the mountains, from the shores of the harbour to some distance inland. These glens are supereminently fruitful, from the combined causes of superior heat and moisture; the first proceeding from the reflected heat of the sun, confined in a narrow space, and the latter produced by the condensation of the vapours, attracted by that heat, or driven by the winds against the mountains' sides. The numerous little coves at the entrance of these glens, are bordered with beaches of the finest sand, where fishermen have erected their dwellings, and which, viewing them from without, have