May,"! O'DoNOGHUE, Rambles in Raak. 9 



1916 J 



succeeded each other in varjdng succession, as the Pointed 

 Everlasting, Helichrysum apiciilatum, the Large Podolepis, 

 Podolepis acuminata, the Large Billy Buttons, Craspedia Richca, 

 and the Common Buttercup, Ranunculus lappaceus, gave place 

 to the Trailing Swainsona, Swainsona procumbens, and the 

 Austral Bluebell, Wahlenhergia gracilis, and these, in turn, to 

 the Dwarf Rice-flower, Pimelea huniilis, and the White Sunray, 

 Heliptermn corynihifoliiim. In many places this flowering 

 composite clothed the flelds so densely as to be suggestive, at 

 a distance, of a wide expanse of snow. 



In their white or emerald setting, sheets of water of varying 

 extent and outline glistened under the sun's rays. On these 

 a variety of water-fowl disported, and from their margins the 

 Straw-necked Ibis, Carphibis spinicollis. White Ibis, Ibis 

 niolucca, the Plain Plover, Zonifer tricolor, the Pacific Heron, 

 Notophoyx pacifica, and the Blue Crane, Notophoyx novce- 

 hollandicB, were often disturbed by the passing train. Flocks 

 of Pink Cockatoos, Cacatua leadbeateri, were noted winging 

 their way from spot to spot, and companies of the more sober- 

 hued Black-backed Magpie, Gymnorhina tibicen, and Crow, 

 Corviis coronoides, enlivened the fields by their continuous 

 change of position, induced either by a lack of amicability or 

 quest of food. 



What a different scene was presented when we traversed the 

 same localities twelve months before ! Then neither bird nor 

 beast was to be seen. No gleam of water greeted the eye as the 

 train progressed hour after hour through dreary, inhospitable, 

 sunburnt wastes, that yielded their tribute of dust to every 

 vagrant wind. Day by day the settlers beheld their stock 

 sink and die from thirst and starvation. Some gave up the 

 struggle and quitted the Mallee for ever ; others, by reason of 

 the possession of more determination, or possibly a lack of 

 initiative, stayed on, hoping for the break in the drought. It 

 came in due course, and they now view, with mingled feelings, 

 tlie waving, luscious grass with which a beneficent Providence 

 has so lavishly carpeted their holdings after depriving them 

 of the animals and the means to make use of its tardy bounty. 



At 4.20 on Wednesday morning the train pulled up in the 

 Mallee, and we were apprised that we had arrived at Nowingi. 

 Descending from our carriage in rather a gingerly fashion, for 

 the drop was fully five feet, we were welcomed by Mr. F. T. 

 Stone, from Mildura, and Johnny Richmond — to whom refer- 

 ence was made in our previous paper — ^from the Kulk5nie 

 Station. 



The morning was bitterly cold, the ground in places being 

 white with hoar frost, and no second invitation was needed from 

 Johnny to repair to his gun yah, some few hundred yards 



