Feb. -J Paton, The Buffalo Plateau in January. 151 



THE BUFFALO PLATEAU IN JANUARY. 



By D. J. Paton. 



(Read before the Field Naiiiralists' Club of Victoria, gth July, 1917.) 



In response to a request from Mr. F. G. A. Barnard that I 

 should write something for the Club anent my experiences on 

 the Buffalo Plateau in January last, the following notes are 

 presented wdth some diffidence for your consideration this 

 evening. 



Fourteen or fifteen years ago this region and the adjacent 

 Alps received some attention from members of the Club, their 

 observations being recorded in the Naturalist of that time, and 

 I -am indebted to an interesting paper by Messrs. Barnard and 

 Sutton {Vict Nat., xx., p. 4), and tlie report of the Club camp-out 

 at Christmas, 1903 {Vict. Nat., xx., p. 144), for much valuable 

 information. 



The scenery and winter pastimes that may be enjoyed at 

 the Buffalo have since attracted increasing numbers of tourists, 

 for whom the whole region has been opened up at Government 

 expense. A graded carriage-road has been constructed to the 

 summit ; The Chalet, a splendid house of accommodation, 

 built ; and tracks marked out with linger-post directions to 

 the places of interest on the Plateau. A lake has been formed 

 for skating and boating. Thus the writer was in a more com- 

 fortable position than the bold explorers who, fourteen years 

 ago, scaled the Plateau by a steep bridle-track, spent a wet 

 Christmas under leaky canvas, and finally slid down the 

 mountain-side in the rain, " yet merry withal." 



We journeyed from Melbourne by the 4 p.m. express on 

 Friday, 26th January, 1917, changing at Wangaratta. A 

 journey of seven hours brought us just before 11 p.m. to Bright, 

 where we stayed overnight. The following morning we resumed 

 the journey by coach, starting about 9.30 a.m. Lunch was 

 taken, and the ascent made a kind of picnic. If desired, one 

 may be taken up by motor, but the slower conveyance gives 

 more leisure for the examination of the scenery and the 

 wonderful views which present themselves from time to time. 

 From Bright to Porepunkah the roadside was lined with bushes 

 of the introduced Blackberry, Riibus friiticosus, with tempting 

 clusters of fruit fully ripe. Everywhere the proclaimed 

 St. John's Wort, Hypericiiin perforatum, has possession of fields 

 and hillsides. The foliage of the Ovens Acacia, .1. pravissima, 

 attracts attention. The work of the dredge is much in evidence. 

 On one dredged area is a tine group of Black Wattles, Acacia 

 decurrens, the only vegetation, evidently owing their existence, 

 in a soil robbed of humus, to their power of fixing atmospheric 

 nitrogen. 



