Page:An account of a voyage to establish a colony at Port Philip in Bass's Strait.djvu/68

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harbour is pointed out by a towering cliff, on the South side, rising perpendicularly from the sea; while, at the head of the Port, the mountains rise into higher elevations, and present forms more strikingly singular;

Rocks rich with gems, and mountains big with mines,
Whence many a bursting stream auriferous plays,

are here seen, now faintly peeping from behind the intervening clouds, and now presenting their dark blue summits above the flaky vapours that roll along their sides.

These mountains consist entirely of granite, forming an adamantine barrier to the waters of the ocean. They are clothed in every part where the least soil can remain, with trees and shrubs of various kinds; and even to the naked

rock,