A little below Wellington, Lake Victoria receives the waters
of the Murray, which eventually mingle with those of the ocean,
through the sea mouth.
The country immediately to the eastward of the Murray affords, in some
places, a scanty supply of grass for sheep, but, generally speaking, it
is similar in its soil and rock formation, and consequently in its
productions to the scrubby country to the westward. The line of granite I
have mentioned, in the former part of my work, as traversing or crossing
the Murray 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.
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