Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 24.djvu/237

Y I C V I C 215 for eight years more, reigning always as a constitutional king, and preserving amidst the splendours of a great court the simple tastes of his early life. He died at Rome of a fever on 9th January 1878, and lies entombed in the Pantheon. late VI. VICTORIA, a British colony occupying the south-eastern corner of Australia; its western boundary is the 141st meridian ; on the east it runs out to a point at Cape Howe, in 150 E. long., being thus rudely triangular in shape; the river Murray constitutes nearly the whole of the northern boundary, its most northerly point being in 34 S. lat. ; the southern boundary is the coast-line of the Southern Ocean and of Bass Strait ; the most southerly point is Wilson s Promontory in 39 S. lat. The greatest length east and west is about 480 miles ; the greatest width, in the west, is about 250 miles. The area is offici ally stated to be 87,884 square miles. oasts. The coast line may be estimated at about 800 miles. It begins at the 141st meridian with bold but not lofty sandstone cliffs, worn into deep caves and capped by grassy undulations, which extend inland to pleasant park -like lands. Capes Bridgewater and Nelson form a peninsula of forest lands, broken by patches of meadow. To the east of Cape Nelson lies the moderately sheltered inlet of Portland Bay, consisting of a sweep of sandy beach flanked by bold granite rocks. Then comes a long unbroken stretch of high cliffs, which owing to insetting currents have been the scene of many calamitous wrecks. Cape Otway is the termination of a wild mountain range that here abuts on the coast. Its brown cliffs rise vertically from the water ; and the steep slopes above are covered with dense forests of exceedingly tall timber and tree ferns. Eastwards from this cape the line of cliffs gradually diminishes in height to about twenty to forty feet at the entrance to Port Phillip. Next comes Port Phillip Bay, a plan of which is given under MELBOURNE, vol. xv. p. 835. When the tide recedes from this bay through the narrow entrance it often encounters a strong current just outside ; the broken and somewhat dangerous sea thus caused is called " the Rip." East of Port Phillip Bay the shores consist for fifteen miles of a line of sandbanks; but at Cape Schanck they suddenly become high and bold. East of this comes Western Port, a deep inlet more than half occupied by French Island and Phillip Island. Its shores are flat and uninteresting, in some parts swampy ; but all the land is owned and most of it occupied. The bay is shallow and of little use for navigation. The coast con tinues rocky round Cape Liptrap. Wilson s Promontory is a great rounded mass of granite hills, with wild and striking scenery, tree-fern gullies, and gigantic gum-trees, connected with the mainland by a narrow sandy isthmus. At its extremity lie a multitude of rocky islets, with steep granite edges. North of this cape, and opening to the east, lies Corner Inlet, which is dry at low water. The coast now continues low to the extremity of the colony. The slight bend northward forms a sort of bight called the Ninety Mile Beach, but it really exceeds that length. It is an unbroken line of sandy shore, backed by low sand hills, on which grows a sparse dwarf vegetation. Behind these hills come a succession of lakes, surrounded by excellent land, and beyond these rise the soft blue outlines of the mountain masses of the interior. The shores on the ex treme east are somewhat higher, and occasionally rise in bold points. They terminate in Cape Howe, off which lies Gabo Island, of small extent but containing an import ant lighthouse and signalling station. rface. The western half of Victoria is level or slightly undulat ing, and as a rule tame in its scenery, exhibiting only thinly timbered grassy lands, with all the appearance of open parks. It is here that the merino sheep are de pastured whose wool secures the highest price in the markets of Europe. The north-west corner of the colony, equally flat, is dry and sometimes sandy, and frequently bare of vegetation, though in one part some seven or eight millions of acres are covered with the dense brushwood known as "mallee scrub." This wide western plain is slightly broken in two places. In the south the wild ranges of Cape Otway are covered over a considerable area with richly luxurious but almost impassable forests. This district has been reserved as a state forest and its coast forms a favourite holiday resort, the scenery being very attractive. The middle of the plain is crossed by a thin line of mountains, known as the Australian Pyrenees, at the western extremity of which there are several irregu larly placed transverse ranges, the chief being the Gram pians, the Victoria Range, and the Sierra Range. Their highest point is Mount Williams (3600 feet). The eastern half of the colony is wholly different. Though there is plenty of level land, it occurs in small patches, and chiefly in the south, in Gippsland, which extends from Corner Inlet to Cape Howe. But a great part of this eastern half is occupied with the complicated mass of ranges known collectively as the Australian Alps. The whole forms a plateau averaging from 1000 to 2000 feet high, with many smaller tablelands ranging from 3000 to 5000 feet in height. The highest peak, Bogong, is 6508 feet in altitude. The ranges are so densely covered with vege tation that it is extremely difficult to penetrate them ; only two tracks, impassable for vehicles, intersect them from north to south. But several thousand square miles of this country are still unexplored. About fifteen peaks over 5000 feet in height have been measured, but there are probably many more. Along the ranges grow the giant trees for which Victoria is famous. The narrow valleys and gullies contain exquisite scenery, the rocky streams being overshadowed by groves of graceful tree- ferns, from amid whose waving fronds rise the tall smooth stems of the white gums. Over ten millions of acres are thus covered with forest-clad mountains too wild for settle ment. The Australian Alps are connected with the Pyrenees by a long ridge called the Dividing Range (1500 to 3000 feet high). Victoria is fairly well watered, but its streams are Rivers, generally too small to admit of navigation. This, how ever, is not the case with the MURRAY RIVER (</.*>.). Echuca is the chief port of the river traffic, and about 250 vessels enter it every year, bringing down from 80,000 to 120,000 bales of wool from the interior. In the lower portion of its course the stream occupies only a narrow winding channel in the midst of its old bed, which now seems like a fertile valley hemmed in on either hand by high cliffs of clay or red earth, or sometimes of beds of oyster shells of vast extent. The navigation of the Murray is greatly impeded by "snags," or trees that have stuck fast in the bed of the river and project a little above or below the surface. But the removal of these obstacles is constantly going on, and consequently the navigation is becoming easier. Of the total length of the Murray 670 miles flow conterminous with Victoria. The Murray re ceives a number of tributaries from the Victorian side The Mitta Mitta, which rises in the heart of the Australian Alps, is 150 miles long. The Ovens, rising among the iame mountains, is slightly shorter. The Goullmrn (340 miles) flows almost entirely through well-settled agricul tural country, and is deep enough to be used in its lower part for navigation. The valley of this river is a fertile rain-producing district. The Campaspe (150 miles) has too little volume of water to be of use for navigation ; its valley is also agricultural, and along its banks there lie a

close succession of thriving townships. The Loddon (over