urray below Wellington, continues through the scrub, large blocks
being frequent amongst the brushes on a somewhat lower level than the
tertiary fossil limestone in its neighbourhood. Round these blocks of
granite the soil is considerably better, and there is a coating of grass
upon it, as far as the ground consists of the decomposed rock.

About sixty miles to the E.S.E. of Wellington is the Tatiara country,
once celebrated for the ferocity and cannibalism of its inhabitants, but
now occupied by the settlers, who have of late crossed the Murray in
considerable numbers to form stations there. The distance from Wellington
to the district of Mount Gambier, said to be the fairest portion of South
Australia, whether as regards its climate or its soil, is more than 200
miles. The first portion of the road, to almost the above distance, is
through a perfect desert, in which, excepting during the rainy season,
water is scarcely to be found, so that the journey is not performed
without its privation. After passing Lake Albert the traveller has to
journey at no great distance from the Coorong over a low country, once
covered by the waters of the ocean, the noise of whose billows he hears
through the silence of the night. The first elevation he reaches is a
continuation of the great fossil bed, through which the volcanic hills,
where he will ultimately arrive, have been forced up. Mount Gambier, the
principal of these, is about 40 miles from the Glenelg, and 50 from
Rivoli Bay. The country from either of these points is low for many
miles, but well grassed, of the richest soil, and in many places
abundantly timbered. Mount Gambier is scarcely visible until you almost
reach its base--nor even then is its outward appearance different from
other hills. On reaching its summit, however, you find youself on the
brink of a crater, standing indeed on a precipice, with a small sheet of
water of about half-a-mile in circumference, two hundred feet below you;
the water of which is as blue as indigo, and seems to be very deep; no
bottom indeed has been found at 50 fathoms. The ground round the base of
Mount Gambier is very open, and you may ride your horse along it
unchecked for many miles. At the lower parts, and at some distance from
it, the ground is moist, and many caverns have been found in which water
of the very purest kind exists, no doubt deposited in the natural
reservoirs by percolation from the higher ground. The whole formation of