It consisted of ranges of hills heavily
timbered, furrowed by deep valleys, through which flowed innumerable
streams, winding their way to the river of the plains. Sometimes the
solitary bushman or prospector, looking across a deep valley, saw,
nestled amongst the opposite hills, a beautiful meadow of grass. But
when he had crossed the intervening creek and scrubby valley, and
continued his journey to the up-land, he found that the deceitful
meadow was only a barren plain, covered, not with grass, but with the
useless grass-tree. There is a little saccharine matter in the roots
of the grass-tree, and a hopeful man from Corio once built a
sugar-mill near the stream, and took possession of the plain as a
sugar plantation. There was much labour, but very little sugar.
In the dense forest, cattle had run wild, and were sometimes seen
feeding in the thinly-timbered grass land outside; but whenever a
horseman approached they dashed headlong into the scrub where no
horseman could follow them. Wild boars and their progeny also rooted
among the tall tussocks in the marshes by the banks of the river,
where it emerged from the ranges into the plains.
Blackfish and eels were plentiful in the river, but they were of a
perverse disposition, and would not bite in the day-time. The bend
nearest to Nyalong was twelve miles distant, and Philip once spent a
night there with Gleeson and McCarthy.
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