VICTORIA, although one of the youngest, and, in point of area, the smallest of the colonies of the Australasian group, is already the most important. In extent of com merce, indeed, it takes precedence of all other colonies—India alone excepted. The extreme modernness, so to say, of the Australian colonial picture is one of its most striking features, for it belongs emphatically to the present generation. Men who are still in middle life may recollect when the Port Phillip settlement—the name first given to Victoria—bad no existence; and those are not yet very old who may remember when even the geographical outline of Australia was incomplete, and when the great harbor of Port Phillip, now the busy scene of the world's commerce, was undiscovered and unheard of.
Geographical Position and comprises the s.e. corner of Australia, at that part where its territory projects furthest iuto cool southern latitudes. Wilson's promontory, to the s.e., the most southerly headland, just passes the 39° of s. lat.; while the most northern point, which is at the opposite or n.w. extreme, is in s. lat. 34°. The long. comprises 9°—between 141° and 156° e. of Greenwich. To the w. is the colony of South Australia, separated by the 141° of e. long.; to the n. is New South Wales, sep arated by the line of the Murray river eastward from 141° e. long. to its source, and thence by a straight line s.e. to cape Howe; and from cape Howe to South Australia, again, the colony is bounded on the s. by Bass's strait. The extreme length is e. and w., and is about 480 m., by an extreme width, n. and s., of 250 miles. But a remarkable indentation of both the n. and s. boundary opposite each other, about the middle of the colony, reduces the breadth between the head of the Port Philip inlet and the Murray to only 120 miles. The superficial area is 56,446,720 acres, or 88,198 sq.miles.
Physical Victoria may be called mountainous, as compared with the general flatness of Australia, it has much of the quiet and peculiar scenery char acteristic of that division of the world. Vast naked plains are deviously traversed by broad and deep river-channels, which are mostly, however, mere chains of ponds, if not altogether dry, excepting in winter and spring, or after heavy showers. Overspread, In cool and moist seasons, with brilliant verdure, the drought and heat of summer quickly convert the grass into a natural hay, which, in the scarcity of sustenance from its ceas ing to grow in that condition, is eaten off to the very,roots by the sheep and cattle, leaving the surface a bare and blackened mass. The "open forest" is another and
very pleasing variety of scenery characteristic of Australia, and largely prevalent in Victoria. It distinguishes the gently undulating country of the better soils, whose sur face is overspread by large trees, chiefly of the red gum (eucalyptus) and silver Wattle (acacia). The trees being widely apart and of spare foliage, and the surface free from underwood, there is commonly a good growth of grass, the whole presenting a charm ing and park-like aspect, although felt to be somewhat tame and monotonous, espe cially under the great defect of most Australian landscapes, the general want of water. Mountain and forest prevail most in the e. division, where the Australian Alps of Gipps's land, the loftiest of Australian chains, culminate in peaks ranging from 1000 to 7,000 ft. above the sea. The w. district, on the other hand, is chiefly remarkable for its numer ous isolated hills of volcanic origin, some of them with craters still perfect, which prob ably have not, in a geological sense, been very long at rest. To this extensive volcanic system Victoria owes the large proportion of its good arable land, as compared with the light sandstone and granite soils that prevail elsewhere in Australia. The chief rivers, besides the Murray and its branches (elsewhere treated of), are the Snowy river, the Tambo, the Mitchell, the Macallister, and the La Trobe—all of Gipps's land; the Yarn. Yarra, the Goulburu, the Loddon, the Wimmera, the Avoca, the Waunon, the Ovens, the Hopkins, and the Glenelg, of which rivers, however, several are not perennial streams. The Australian fauna is very remarkable; notably the kangaroo or pouched family, and the emu or great wingless bird. There are besides the echidna and platypus, of quite a different family, and even more singular in structure, especially the last, as indicated by its other name of ornithorhynchus paracloxus. The dingo, or native dog, is remarkable as a non-marsupial exception, on which account it has been regarded as an introduction by human agency. But several years ago prof. McCoy of Melbourne met with its fossil remains associated with those of extinct animals, and in deposits that, although recent, geologically speaking, are in other respects so remote as to establish this animal's indigenous claim.