There, under the brilliant sun of an Australian
summer's day, rose lofty peaks that might have found a fitting home in
some far polar clime, covered as they were for nearly one-fourth of their
height with glistening snow.
Skirting this range, which was called the Australian Alps, the
travellers, after eight days wandering through the spurs of the lofty
mountains they had just seen, came on a fine flowing river, which Mr.
Hume named after his father the "Hume," destined to be afterwards called
the Murray when visited lower down.
Failing to find a ford, a makeshift boat was constructed by the aid of
the useful tarpaulin, and the passage of the Hume safely accomplished.
Still passing through good available country watered by fine flowing
streams, on the 24th they crossed the Ovens River, and on the 3rd of
December they came to another river, which they called the Hovell (now
the Goulburn), and on the 16th of the same month reached the sea shore,
near where Geelong now stands. Two days afterwards they commenced their
return, and on the 18th January arrived at Lake George.
This exploration had a great and lasting bearing on the extension of
Australian settlement.
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