^'\''] Paton, The Buffalo Plateau in January. 153 



ferns. Getting round a spur of the range, we begin at last 

 actually to approach our goal. 



About eleven and a half miles by road from Porepunkah we 

 enter granite country, and half a mile further on reach 

 " Mackey's Look-out." Here are shelter sheds, and here we 

 have lunch. Here we found in bloom Loinatia ilicifolia, 

 Grevillea parvifiora, Westringia senifolia (waning), and Pelar- 

 gonium anstrale, the last growing in cracks of the smooth, 

 shppery, granite surfaces, which, sloping at a steep angle, are 

 almost bare of vegetation. Here grows also a variety of 

 Acacia longifolia with broad phyllodes and large flower-spikes. 

 It flowers in October. The view is very fine as we resume 

 the ascent. The road here doubles on itself, and is cut into 

 the granite rock-faces, or built up with blocks of the same. 

 Another commanding view-point — " Staker's Look-out" — is 

 half a mile further on. After passing the latter, the road enters 

 the cleft between the main plateau and the North Buffalo, 

 and the rugged peaks of the latter are seen to advantage. 

 Ascending higher and higher, the road doubles and twists, 

 passing huge boulders, and finally attains its highest point 

 (4,500 feet). During this stage the bulbous Fringe-Lily, 

 Thysanotits tnberosiis, Lobelia gibbosa, Isotoma axillaris, and 

 several plants mentioned later, were seen. 



Now we get our first view of the Plateau. A grassy valley 

 stretches before us, through which wanders a deep, limpid 

 brook, bordered with flowering shrubs. Beyond rise granite 

 peaks, one in particular, near the summit of which a huge rock 

 is precariously balanced, being pointed out as the " MonoUth." 

 Descending into the valley, we pass along it towards the Gorge, 

 and wind up the eminence on which The Chalet is built. 

 Here is our goal ; but the afternoon is still young, and a new 

 world is ours to conquer, so we soon sally forth to seek new 

 adventures. Proceeding first to " Bent's Look-out," a pile of 

 rocks on the south lip of the Gorge, only a few yards from 

 The Chalet, we examine in safety,' behind iron raiUngs, the 

 wonderful prospect that hes before and beneath us. We look 

 down, far below, at the foot of the dizzy precipice, on wooded 

 hills, a yellow streak here and there among the trees marking 

 the road which we ascended so laboriously. Beyond is the 

 Ovens Valley, the paddocks mere " pocket-handkerchief allot- 

 ments " ; beyond that again, rising tier on tier, the Alpine 

 mountain ranges. Descending a winding footpath to another 

 railed look-out, the fuH majesty of the Gorge makes itself felt. 

 Opposite rises an almost perpendicular wall, a sheer drop of 

 1,700 feet. To the left the waters of the Buffalo Falls hurl 

 themselves into the abyss, breaking into iridescent fragments 

 on projecting rocks. Following the track between and over 



