260 A NATURALIST ON THE " CHALLENGER, 5 ' 



wheel and its supports looked out of place in the middle of the 

 principal square and public garden of the city. 



I went down two of the mines, and saw specks of gold in the 

 richest quartz reef. Some of the very richest quartz, however, 

 hardly shows the gold to the eye, for the metal lies hid in black 

 dirty-looking streaks in the white rock, and is only brought 

 to light after the process of crushing and amalgamation. I saw 

 also the crushing establishments, where the din of the heavy 

 iron stampers falling with a crash upon the quartz was absolutely 

 deafening. Although the men employed in feeding the stampers 

 are from habit able to converse, notwithstanding the noise, I 

 could not hear in the least when my companion shouted into 

 my very ear. I saw the pasty amalgam and the gold fresh from 

 the retort, known as " cake," and finally I handled heavy masses 

 of melted cake fuzed into solid ingots worth many thousand 

 pounds. The mining people were most hospitable. 



My last excursion was up the valley of the Yarra, to the 

 besfinnino- of the " ranges." the Australian word for mountains, at 

 a place called Healesville. I went with one of the assistants of 

 Baron Yon Midler, the celebrated botanist, who kindly offered 

 me his assistant as a guide. My object was to see some of the 

 enormous Eucalyptus trees which grow in the "ranges," and 

 which, as discovered by Baron von Muller, are the highest trees 

 in the world, exceeding in height the Sequoia gigantea of 

 California. One of these trees, measured when fallen, was found 

 by Baron Muller to be 478 feet in length.* 



We travelled about 50 or 60 miles bv coach. The coaches 

 are very like Californian coaches, and are rough but very strong, 

 the bodies being slung by thick leather straps to wheels as stout 

 as cart wheels. The road is scarcely anywhere better than is 



* The highest estimate ever made of the height of a Sequoia gigantea 

 is that of Bigelow, who put the height of one at from 420 to 470 feet. 

 Bigelow, in " Whipple's Expedition," p. 23 (Pacific Railroad Explora- 

 tions) ; cit. by Grisebach, " Veg. der Erde." 



Sir Joseph Hooker, in a lecture delivered at the Royal Institution of 

 Great Britain, April 12th, 1878, and published in separate form, p. 12, 

 cites Prof. Whitney's careful measurements of the heights of Californian 

 Big Trees as the best available estimate up to date. Average height 

 275 feet ; maximum height a little over 320 feet. 



