Blue Hills
which the traveller saw after leaving the dismal Corners, stretching like a barrier in the dim distance, he is now fairly amongst. Grim, granite mountain heights, flanked and ribbed with the old world palæozoic slates and sandstones, that have been upheaved by the said granite from their originally horizontal position, into a nearly vertical one, rise on either hand before him. At the feet of those gracefully rounded heights, on the left hand, flows the South Esk, and now, and anon, the visitor will get glimpses of it through the trees that he is not likely to readily forget. He will observe that the material of the road is of a very different character to that he has been travelling over for some time past, since he took his seat in the coach. He will observe that it consists of waterworn pebbles of quartz and gravel. In a word, he is in an auriferous region, and that charming river that flows so peacefully at the feet of the high hills far below, is responsible for these pebbles. In the slates and sandstones on these hillsides, there are quartz veins and lodes containing gold more, or less, and these have been worn down ages ago, the result being that deep down in the old river bed the precious metal lies, but it is locked up, and the woolgrowers have the key. On the summits of those granite hills which are table-topped there is tin ore in small quantity. But we must not stay here too long to geologise, for we’ve many a league to traverse yet. Now are we fairly in Saintdom, for we have crossed St. Paul’s river, and two or three miles off the road to our right, rises St. Paul’s Dome—a conspicuously rounded lofty hill, while St. Mary’s, Mt. St. Nicholas and St. Patrick’s Head await us in the distance. Some of the earlier colonists who conferred these names, in most instances quite inappropriate, must have been deeply imbued with Saint Worship. The road now for many miles will skirt the ancient bed of the South Esk, which is perhaps the finest valley in the island; much of it is devoted to agriculture, but more of it to grazing.
Towering far above all other hills proudly rises