myall (Acacia pendula) formed a pleasant feature on the
skirts of Liverpool Plains and elsewhere, drooping with
delicate foliage. Nearly all the trees are evergreen, but the
general hue is sombre. The currejong (cooramin) of the
forest, and the casuarina which lines the rivers, stand with
brighter green in cheering contrast to the dulness of
surrounding leaves. Amongst the mountain forests and
dense underwood all tints may be found, but they are
reserved for him who woos them, being far from the
thoroughfares of travel. The steep eastern flanks of the
cordillera are for the most part thickly wooded, and dense
jungles fill the ravines in the mountains and follow the
streams downwards. On the less precipitous slopes to the
interior an open forest is soon reached, and park-like glades,
downs, and plains abound, until the great depression of the
island is reached at an elevation of from six to eight hundred
feet above the sea level. The larger streams are accompanied by lines of vegetation welcome to thirsty travellers.
Much of the interior is not bare, but covered with a low
growth of what the colonists call scrub-intermingled shrubs
and small trees.
Some early writers, following Strzelecki's surmise, assumed that the cordillera, interrupted by Bass's Straits, reappeared in Tasmania. Mr. A. R. C. Selwyn, when geologist of Victoria, showed that this surmise was incorrect, and that the true extension of the cordillera is its deflection westward which divides the Murray river waters from the declivity to the sea. In Victoria the rocks which compose the chain are in great part of the upper and lower Silurian age, and in these have been found the gold deposits.
The lower Silurian rock system Mr. Selwyn estimated at a thickness of 35,000 feet. He it was who pointed out the fallacy of the generally-received opinion that gold would not be found at considerable depth, and in deference to his judgment Sir Roderick Murchison qualified in a later edition of his 'Siluria' a statement which was at variance with Mr. Selwyn's opinion. An area of more than 30,000 square miles presented prospective advantages to the gold-miner in Victoria alone. As the lower part of the Murray is approached, on leaving the hill country, the great tertiary depression of the interior is reached, which extends to its
