I 



Nov.,] Notes. 1 19 



The Great War. — The death, in France, while on active 

 service, of Private Gervase E. Somers, at the early age of 

 1 9 years, has caused another blank in the family of a country 

 member of the Field Naturalists' Club — Dr. Edgeworth Somers, 

 of Mornington, to whom the sympathy of fellow-members is 

 extended. Dr. Somers's eldest son fell at Gallipoli in 1915, 

 while a third son is serving as a trooper in Palestine. 



Commonwealth Military Survey of Australia. — Some 

 time ago attention was called {Vic. Nat., xxxiii., p. 143) to 

 several of the military survey maps of Victoria as being useful 

 to naturalists on their excursions. Since that date a map has 

 been issued, entitled " Ballan, Sunbury, Meredith, and Mel- 

 bourne," on the smaller scale of half an inch to one mile, equal 

 in area covered to four of the maps previously referred to. 

 This includes two of the maps (Sunbury and Melbourne) already 

 issued on the larger scale of one inch to one mile. The present 

 map is of interest to naturalists because it includes the Lerder- 

 derg Ranges, north of Bacchus Marsh, and the tract of semi- 

 tableland country known as the Brisbane Range, south-west 

 of that town, of both of which the late Mr. J. G. O'Donoghue 

 was so fond, and gave so many interesting details in vols, 

 xxvi., xxvii., and xxix. of the Naturalist. The highest point 

 of the latter is given as 1,403 feet, and the contour lines show 

 how extremely steep is its eastern face, the 700-feet line being 

 little more than a mile away. The map also includes the course 

 of the Moorabool from Bungaree to Lethbridge, a picturesque 

 valley, some 30 miles in length as the crow flies, but consider- 

 ably longer by the windings of the stream. The map is issued 

 at the same price as the others — -viz., one shilling. 



Names of Victorian Railway Stations. — There has 

 recently been published, in pamphlet form, a handy list of the 

 railway stations in Victoria, with, as far as ascertainable, 

 the origins and meanings of their names. In accomplishing 

 this difficult task, the author, Mr. Thos. O'Callaghan, J. P., 

 ex-Commissioner of Police, must have spent a large amount 

 of time, for such information as he has got together requires 

 a considerable amount of sifting before it can be accepted as 

 correct. It may be thought that such a work has little interest 

 for naturalists, but a glance at its pages will show that a large 

 number of our towns, and hence railway stations, have derived 

 their names from the native names of natural objects in their 

 vicinity. Take, for instance, " Albacutya." This is given as 

 " Native, from Ngelbakutya, sour quondong." In his intro- 

 ductory remarks the author gives a number of origins of 

 prominent places in other Australian States. An interesting 



