rt of the banks of the
Lachlan notwithstanding the dreary level of the naked plains back from
them.

CHARACTER OF THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF TREES.

The yarra grew here, as on the Darling, to a gigantic size, the height
sometimes exceeding 100 feet; and its huge gnarled trunks, wild
romantic-formed branches often twisting in coils, shining white or light
red bark, and dark masses of foliage, with consequent streaks of shadow
below, frequently produced effects fully equal to the wildest forest
scenery of Ruysdael or Waterloo. Often as I hurried along did I take my
last look with reluctance of scenes forming the most captivating studies.
The yarra is certainly a pleasing object in various respects; its shining
bark and lofty height inform the traveller of a distant probability of
water, or at least of the bed of a river or lake; and being visible over
all other trees it usually marks the course of rivers so well that, in
travelling along the Darling and Lachlan, I could with ease trace the
general course of the river without approaching its banks until I wished
to encamp. The nature and character of several other species of the genus
eucalyptus were nevertheless very different and peculiar. The small kind,
covered with a rough bark and never exceeding the size of fruit trees in
an orchard and called, I believe, by Mr. Oxley, the dwarf-box, but by the
natives goborro, grows only on plains subject to inundation, and it
usually bears on the lower part of the trunk the mark of the water by
which it is at times surrounded. Between the goborro and the yarra there
seems this difference: the yarra grows only on the banks of rivers,
lakes, or ponds, from the water of which the roots derive nourishment;
but when the trunk itself has been too long immersed the tree dies; as
appeared on various lakes and in reedy swamps on the Lachlan. The goborro
on the contrary seldom grows on the banks of a running stream, but seems
to thrive in inundations, however long their duration. Mr. Oxley remarked
during his wet journey that there was always water where these trees
grew. We found them in most cases during a dry season, a sure indication
that none was to be discovered near them. It may be observed however that
all permanent waters are invariably surrounded by the yarra. These
peculiarities we ascertained only after examining many a hopeless hollow
where grew the goborro by itself; nor until I had found my sable guides
eagerly scanning the yarr