Page:Victoria, with a description of its principal cities, Melbourne and Geelong.djvu/103

 paths, leaving which, the land rises, becoming less wooded, as well as less valuable for either pastoral or agricultural purposes; still, the view from the hills is magnificent in the extreme, and the groups of the mimosa, musk, and other shrubs, peculiar to the locality, give a rich and odorous perfume on the breeze, making the weary traveller forget the difficulties and tediousness of the way, stopping entranced to gaze on the enchanting scenery, as he turns towards the sea. From hence you ascend the Buninyong Range, on surmounting which the plain of Ballaarat is open to the view. Sloping a little from the height, a wide plain of stunted forest land of the Eucalyptus genus stretches away for miles before you, the land seeming most barren and wretched. A deep gulley intersects the plain, along the sides of which a view exceeding description is spread out before you—the ground covered with tents, new-formed buildings, hotels, and half-planned streets, all around. The country seems burrowed in every direction; pits of all sorts of depths and shapes yawn in your pathway; thousands of diggers scattered over the plain, with their varied and quaint encampments around. On the site of the town was also the busy work of men, and, like another Babel, the noise and clamour of the mason and carpenter, and other artisans, made the scene one of the most extraordinary ever witnessed.

The other route from Melbourne, direct overland, we copy from the note-book of a brother