RAMBLES BY BIVERS. 249 



from Lake Bolac, then Black's River or Emu Creek, and further on 

 Cudgee, or Brucknall's Creek, — these, with freshwater springs supply the 

 current flow. A little lower down we come to the Hopkins Falls, whose 

 limpid waters sparkle in the sun; and a few miles further, to the 

 Allansford Bridge, past which the stream glides musically along, like the 

 murmur of a pebbly brook in the Old Country, through rich black soil, 

 well stocked with farms, and tenanted by industrious hard-working men. 

 On the margin of another waterfall about a mile onwards, up to which 

 the tide flows from the sea, stand steam saw-mills, and above it Tooram, 

 the station of one of the earliest settlers in the district, thickly sur- 

 rounded by Eucalypti, Cherry trees, (Exocarpi,) Box, and Light wood, 

 old and young, such as we may travel a long distance without again 

 seeing. 



Nor are these richly-foliaged trees, quiet as they seem to us now, 

 destitute of animal life; come you at nightfall, and watch the merry 

 gambols of the Flying Squirrels and Opossums, leaping from branch to 

 branch; listen to the heavy munching of the Wombat, who is feeding 

 timidly on the grass which surrounds his burrow, into which, if he observes 

 us, he hastens with a celerity which his looks belie; the slothful Koala, 

 or Native Bear, too, comes forth to feast on the young leaves of the 

 Gum-tree, and the long-snouted Bandicoot, (Perameles nasuta,) climbs 

 about the fallen timber. We have a specimen before us as we write; it 

 measures from the tip of the snout to the end of the tail sixteen inches 

 the tail itself being two inches and a half. Iris very dark brown, upper 

 parts of the body dark grey, the lower white, the tail slightly hairy, 

 certainly not scaly as some writers state, (at least in the individual before 

 us,) head very long, with slender naked muzzle; fore feet with five toes, 

 the two middle very long, with long claws, the third much shorter, and 

 two clawless- rudimentary ones placed some distance behind the others. 

 The hind foot has four toes, the middle one remarkably long, those on 

 each side being only half the length, and the fourth, some way back, 

 also rudimentary. One of the claws on the side toe is bifid. We have 

 taken the young from the pouch about September, at which time also 

 the Flying Squirrel breeds. 



The natives, it is said, avow that this singular animal, the Koala, 

 never drinks water; and, as we have elsewhere remarked, we are inclined 

 to believe that not only it, but all the animals of this country, can 

 subsist for a considerable time without; yet in confinement we have fre- 

 quently seen it thrust its head into a pan of water, probably to supply 

 the moisture which he missed in the dry, long-gathered gum stalks and 

 leaves which formed its food. When these were not fresh, the stems 

 were always devoured first, but when new and moist the leaves were 



