MOUNT WILSON AND ITS FERNS. 



By P. N. Trebeck. 



The south-west portion of Mt. Wilson, which is now occupied, 

 is situated N. and N.E. of the Mount Wilson Station, on the Great 

 Western Railway, about five miles in a direct line, but in conse- 

 quence of a number of deep ravines and gullies intervening the 

 road makes a circuit of 10 miles along the top of the range dividing 

 the waters of the Wollangambe and Bowen Creeks, both tribu- 

 taries of the Colo River. The road is an excellent one and well 

 kept, and for the first five miles goes along the old stock-route 

 known as Bell's line. It then turns off to the north and reaches 

 the foot of Mt. Wilson 390 feet below the summit. From the 

 railway station to this point, the road traverses the usual Hawkes- 

 bury Sandstone of the Blue Mountains, ferruginous in some spots, 

 and maintains an average elevation of 3,000 feet, with some 

 pretty scenery to the east in the direction of Mounts King George, 

 Tomah, and Hay, and the Valley of the Colo, and on the west 

 towards Mt. Clarence and the Valley of the Wollangambe. 



At the foot of Mt. Wilson, the basaltic rock and rich brown 

 and chocolate soil are met with, and the sudden transformation 

 from the ordinary dull brown stunted gums, to the most luxuriant 

 growth of the sassafras, mimosas, acacias, tree- and other ferns, 

 and numerous other dark and bright green handsome shrubs, is very 

 charming and grateful to the traveller after the long railway 

 journey and the drive over the sterile mountain country. 



Mt. Wilson is ascended by a well made zig-zag road cut out of 

 the rich basaltic hill-side, shaded by overhanging trees, shrubs, and 

 tree-ferns, which form a beautiful avenue nearly to the top of the 

 mount. About three quarters of the way up the zig-zag is a 

 basalt quarry where the pentagonal and hexagonal columnar forma- 

 tion is clearly visible. The road to the seven residences on the 

 mount winds along nearly on the crown of the hill, diverging 



