158 Excursion to Mary sville. [v^"^''xxxv. 



I-Iealcsvillc and Marysvillc is famed as being one of the most 

 picturesque in the State, passing as it does over the Blacks' 

 Spur, celebrated for its tall trees. At about six miles out the 

 turn-off to Mount Juliet was passed on our right, and in another 

 mile the Maroondah River, formerly known as the Watts, was 

 crossed. Here was the site of Fernshaw, a well-known tourist 

 resort in the sixties and seventies, but since resumed in the 

 interests of Melbourne's water supply. Morley's track, a 

 favourite walk of Fernshaw visitors in times gone by, branches 

 off up the valley of the Maroondah just where the road takes 

 a sudden turn to the left at the foot of the Spur. A photo- 

 graph on the table depicts three tree-ferns, said to be sixty feet 

 in height, which were to be seen along this track. Ascending 

 the Spur, the road rises rapidly — about 1,200 feet in three 

 miles. During the first mile or two the under-scrub has been 

 greatly thinned out during recent years by bush fires, which, 

 at the expense of the beauty, enables more extensive views 

 to be obtained in a south-westerly direction. The splendid 

 scenery of the upper part of the Spur was greatly admired. 

 On the left is the beautiful Myrtle Creek, with its dense 

 vegetation of many kinds, with a heavily-timbered slope rising 

 up behind. Many huge trees are to be seen close to the road, 

 but the trunk of one of the largest, known as " Uncle Sam," 

 now lies prostrate on the side of the road near the drinking 

 trough. While ascending the Spur the remarkable conical 

 hill known as Mount Dom Dom was seen close by, on the right, 

 with the huge mass of Mount Strickland (4,000 feet) a few miles 

 beyond. As we descended the eastern slope, now in the Murray 

 watershed, at a break in the forest known as Zeal's Look-out, 

 a very fine view across the Acheron Valley to the rugged 

 Cathedral Mountain, near Buxton, was obtained. A short 

 halt was made at Narbethong, in the valley of Fisher's Creek, 

 and then progress was resumed through rather uninteresting 

 country to the Acheron bridge, whence the road gradually 

 ascends till it again reaches an altitude of 2,000 feet at the 

 Bald Hill, dropping again 500 feet before reaching Marysville, 

 which township was reached about 4.30 p.m., just as heavy 

 rain, which had been threatening for some time, set in, lasting 

 for an hour or more. Here we were cordially welcomed to the 

 hotel by Miss Keppel, and soon had our rooms allotted to us. 

 There was very little in the way of a floral display along 

 the road we had traversed, the Blue Pincushion, Brunonia 

 australis, the pink Trigger-flower, Stylidium graminifolittm, 

 and the Fringed Lily, Thysanotiis titberosiis, being perhaps the 

 most noticeal)lc. After tea, as the rain had stopped and there 

 was still an hour or so of daylight, some of the party went for 

 a walk for a couple of miles along the Wood's Point road, 

 which rises sharply beyond the Steavenson River. Here the 



