Page:Victoria, with a description of its principal cities, Melbourne and Geelong.djvu/87

 Tasmania, which we fully described in our work on that country, we must refer our readers to it.

Vast forests, diversified with mountains and valleys, beside innumerable plains with a few scattered trees; rivers appearing like a chain of ponds; here and there a solitary patch of cleared land;—form the principal features of the vast continent, now divided into four separate and independent countries. To a wanderer through Victoria, nothing so attracts his attention as the open forest land, which appears like a gentleman's demesne in England, occupied, however, only by the fleet-passing emu, or the wild-leaping kangaroo. Again, his vision is delighted by lofty ranges, covered with most beautiful verdure to their summits; extensive lagoons, darkened with legions of wild-fowl; innumerable birds, of the most beautiful plumage, chirping and flitting from every tree; flowers of every hue and shade in the rainbow are seen, strewing your path as you proceed; above you the blue Italian sky, the fair vault of heaven, unruffled by a cloud; the air around you soft, pure, and balmy, and all in silence around him—such is Australia! In such a scene as this it was once my fate, during my wanderings, to witness a sudden change that broke upon the contemplations which the solemn stillness and solitude gave rise to, by one of those throes of nature this climate is subject to. It was during a ramble through the mountains of Victoria, in the midst of one of the most awful thunder-storms ever