Page:The Present State and Prospects of the Port Phillip District of New South Wales.djvu/132

 that, to the westward and southward, the country is chiefly of the trap formation, and other traces of igneous action are very obvious; Mount Elephant, Mount Rouse, Mount Eels, Mount Eccersley, and many others, being evidently the craters of extinct volcanoes; and over the whole country are found pumice-stone, scoriæ, and a quantity of small pebbles, of a glazed metallic appearance, something resembling shot, which appear evidently derived from the same source. Lignite is found on the shores of Port Phillip, near Western Port. Some fossil remains of a very large size have been lately discovered near Macedon; hut it is not yet ascertained to what animal they belong. They have been sent to England, I believe, to Professor Owen.

In a previous chapter I have remarked upon the soil of the district.

The principal trees are the six kinds of Eucalyptus, namely, the white gum, the red gum, the bastard box or peppermint, the box, the stringy bark, and the iron bark. All of these have leaves if not identical, yet so nearly similar, that to a casual observer they appear alike. Hence the varieties are generally distinguished by a name indicating some peculiarity in the bark or timber. Thus the stringy bark derives its name from the nature of the bark, which, when stripped, can be beaten into fibres resembling those of the cocoa-nut used in the coir rope of India, and from which a rude kind of rope is sometimes made. Use is also made of this bark, as well as that of the box tree, to roof the huts of settlers in whose neighbourhood it abounds. The fibrous nature of the bark of this tree makes it