Page:Victoria, with a description of its principal cities, Melbourne and Geelong.djvu/66

 The mineral riches of this country are not yet sufficiently appreciated. We may here mention that argentiferous lead ore has been found at the Gibbo Creek, and malachite at the Grampians.

At a moderate distance from the coast, along the whole extent of this province, there is an extremely fertile country; and when we consider that in the western and northern part of South Australia, and also in the Swan River colony, the really rich agricultural land forms only but scattered oases, and that in many districts of New South Wales the heat of the climate prevents the progress of agriculture, we must look upon Victoria as the most promising, for the future, even did she not possess a distribution of gold through nearly the whole of her mountains.

We cannot avoid here expressing our conviction that the richest of all the Gold Fields lie yet hidden in the unexplored recesses of the Snowy Mountains. Only a single party of diggers have as yet ascended the Boogong Mountains. They were Californians, and made the journey from the Buffalo Mountains. Surface gold was plentiful, and they were only prevented commencing operations for want of provisions. At the same time, it must be borne in mind that the severity of the climate during six or seven months of the year must in this district seriously retard the progress of settlement. The climate, however, is no worse than that experienced by the villagers on the snow-clad mountains of Switzerland.