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Untitled Article
selves/— -We cannot resist giving- an extract from on © of the Company ' s Reports , which will convey an idea of the aspect of one portion of the territory in its possession . We hold him an enviable surveyor who first discovered it .
• On the 14 th they arrived at the base of a lofty hill , which was named after the day , Valentine ' s Peak . From the summit and from an elevation of 3000 feet , they saw a fine open country to the north-east , and south-west . Descending the south side of the hill , they alighted in the evening upon grassy hills and knolls , resembling a neglected old park in England ; 1000 to 1500 acres in a patch , and without a tree , except a few clumps of black-wood .
Kangaroos were here in abundance , as in every other part of the country about to be described ; a sure sign of the goodness of the soil and herbage . A brook runs across this district , the banks of which are green with trefoil . Proceeding in a direction west * south-west , they passed through an excellent country , consisting of gently rising , dry , grassy hills . On the following day they walked over many considerable hills , the grass of which had
recently been burned by the natives , and soon after came to a hoble river , with a strong current , gliding smoothly along from south to north , and which they named the Don by way of distinction . At that part it was about sixty yards wide , and in the shallowest place up to their middles in crossing . On its banks are complete sloping shrubberies . At some distance from this * river ( Mr . Hellyer proceeds to state ) they ascended the most
magnificent grassy hill he had seen in the island , the sides con ~ sisting of several level terraces , as if laid out by art , and the top crowned with a straight row of stately peppermint trees , beyond which there was not a tree for four miles along the grassy hills . He congratulated himself on having had so fine a day as the preceding , or he could have had a very imperfect idea of the
extent of good country around him . The plains , or rather hills , which he had just passed over , he named , from their extent and importance , the Surrey Hills , being about the same distance , inland , as that county in England . He describes them as resembling English enclosures in many respects , being bounded by brooks between each , with belts of beautiful shrubs in everv Vale .
The grasses in the line of their walk were principally timothy , foxtail and single kangaroo . The surface soil is a dark vegetable mould upon a rich brown open loam , of various depths , and lighter in colour according to its depth ; but the substratum is every where gravelly , which appears to render these hills perfectly
dry . All the brooks have hard pebbly bottoms * are free from mud , and the water is as clear as crystal . The trees found on these hiils are generally of fine growth , very tali and straight , some of them measuring a hundred feet to the lowest branch , and stand a hundred yards apart This Mr . Hellyer does not think at all too thickly timbered to afford a shade from the summer beat ; and it
Untitled Article
378 Van DUmen'k Land .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1832, page 378, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1814/page/18/
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