126 Daley — Notes of a Visit lo Mallacoota Ivlet. [v,^''^xxxi'v 



of the Harmonious Thrusli. Lyre-Birds still haunt these 

 shaded glades and fern gullies. 



I was very pleased to meet a fellow Club member in Mr. 

 E. H. Lees, C.E., F.R.A.S., whose courtesy and hospitality, so 

 freely tendered, were alike acceptable. The residence of Mr. 

 Lees, " Fairhavcn," is delightfully situated on an isthmus 

 behind a headland commanding extensive and charming views 

 of the scenery of the Inlet. Both garden and orchard fully 

 exhibit the fertile nature of the soil and the abundance resulting 

 from its culture under skilful direction. 



Most of the adjoining country is auriferous. East of the 

 Inlet the " Spotted Dog " mine has been worked with fair 

 results, and other places prospected, but the quartz lodes are 

 patchy in character, and the difficulties of working satisfactorily 

 are very great. 



Mallacoota abounds in fish — bream, salmon trout, flounders, 

 flathcad, ludrick, skipjack, schnappcr, whiting, gar, yellow-tail, 

 &c., giving excellent sport. Rock oysters are obtainable near 

 the entrance, an extensive aboriginal kitchen midden being in 

 the vicinity, as was usually the case wherever shelbfish were 

 abundant near the coast. Black Duck and Teal were just 

 beginning to come into the Inlet ; Swans and Coots were 

 numerous, but wild-fowl were not so plentiful as I expected 

 to find them, the season being rather early. 



In the forests and scrub kangaroos and wallabies are still 

 fairly numerous. Koalas and an occasional Echidna are met 

 with ; opossums and platypi in fair numbers. Emus arc 

 sometimes seen. Reptiles are well represented. The Carpet 

 Snake, Python variegatus, is found in Eastern Gippsland, some- 

 times of very large size, and I was credibly informed that its 

 congener, the Diamond Snake, supposed to be confined to 

 Queensland and New South Wales, was also sometimes met with. 

 The Copper-head frequents the swamps, and the Black, the 

 Tiger, and the Brown Snakes are widely distributed in Gipps- 

 land. The most noticeable lizards are the " Goannas," or 

 " Lace Lizards," \'aranus gonldii, which are numerous, and 

 often from four to five feet in length, and the " Water Dragons," 

 Physignathus Icsiteri, frequenting the banks of the creeks. 



Mallacoota is a favoured haunt for birds, all the smaller 

 Warblers, Robins, Tits, Wrens, Fh-catchers, Cuckoos, cSrc, 

 being numerous, whilst birds of special interest, such as the 

 I^mu-Wren, Spotted Ground-Bird, Bristle-Bird, and Ground 

 Parrot, only found in restricted areas, can be seen. The Wonga 

 Pigeon, the Bronzewing, and the Peaceful Dove are numerous. 

 Migratory visitants, tempted by the gonial climate, extend the 

 limits of their usual habitats southwards, and so strange birds 

 are sometimes noted which appear nowhere else in N'ictoria — 



