Page:The Boy Travellers in Australasia.djvu/512

488 and the shores of the salt lakes glistening with snowy crystals. In the landscape are plains, undulating areas, and mountains. The plains are dotted with trees, there are flocks of sheep and herds of cattle scattered over them, and here and there we can make out the houses of the prosperous farmers, and trace the fences that enclose fields of grain. Most of the smaller lakes are in the craters of extinct volcanoes, and there is abundant evidence that this region was once the scene of great convulsions of nature.

"WarnamboolWarrnambool [sic] and Belfast are the ports of this district, and they supply the markets of Sydney, Brisbane, and Adelaide, as well as the nearer one of Melbourne, with potatoes. The people claim that their potatoes are without competitors, quality and quantity being of the highest class. The maximum yields are from twenty to thirty tons an acre; land sells for four hundred dollars an acre for growing potatoes, and one happy land-owner lets out two square miles of ground for twenty-five dollars an acre annually! This is the part of the country that was originally named Australia Felix, and it certainly deserved the title."

"Where will we go next?" queried one of the youths, as the party was returning from Colac to Melbourne.

"Where do you wish to go?" said the Doctor, answering one question by asking another.

"According to what they tell us," responded the original questioner, "there is still a great deal to be seen—at least from a resident's point of view.

"We are urged to visit cattle and sheep stations in the interior, but there can hardly be anything especially new about them after what we have seen in New South Wales and Queensland; so I vote against any more pastoral visits."

The other members of the party assented to his opinion, and it was decided that time did not permit them to stay longer among sheep and cattle.

For a similar reason it was concluded to decline an invitation to spend a few days in Gippsland, which was named after one of the former governors and is famous for its mountain scenery, its lakes, rivers, and other natural features. Some portions of it are too rough for agriculture, but a considerable part is peculiarly rich and fertile, and produces abundantly when brought under cultivation. A large proportion of the cattle sold in the Melbourne market comes from Gippsland; and the region has great resources in minerals, which are as yet but slightly developed.