208 Royal Australasian Oniilhologisls' Union. [isf^jan 



something of the reverence that possesses the thoughts when 

 standing bare-headed before the magnificent age-old beech-trees 

 of -the Macpherson Range. Were there tongues in these sentinel 

 pines of the Bunya Range, what stories they could tell ! What 

 animation there must have been when thousands of Nature's 

 dusky children gathered to the roasting of the beloved bon-yi 

 cones, and to the varied feasts which followed ! What weird 

 scenes when special corroborees filled the night, when the morn 

 was saluted with the startling Cry for the Dead, and, finally, when 

 the memorable time of feasting ended with a huge fight ! 



" Alas ! " writes Meston, " no artist ever beheld those strange 

 scenes at the assemblings of the tribes at the Bunya Mountains. 

 They have gone for ever — vague and shadowy now in the misty 

 moonlight of memory — dim phantoms only in the imagination. 

 In fancy alone can we recall those multitudinous dark forms, 

 stalking stealthily through the pine scrubs ; in fancy alone can 

 we hear the soft footfalls of a thousand naked feet upon the 

 fallen leaves." A remnant of the once powerful tribes continued 

 to assemble at the historic range until the coming of a sawmill, 

 which effectually put an end to the gathering of the clans. But 

 it did not put an end to the trees themselves. Probably thousands 

 have succumbed to the claims of commerce — for the bunya pine 

 has many superior qualities — but still thousands remain on the 

 highlands, dark, stately, and picturesque, and seeming, indeed, 

 to have acquired a new solemnity in mourning over their vanished 

 kin-spirits, the original Queenslanders who held high revel at 

 the Feast of the Bunyas. 



Remarkable Air-Wells. 



The second feature alluded to as a remarkable characteristic 

 of the Bunya Range is not vegetation, but the lack of it at certain 

 points — the presence of considerable stretches of perfectly open 

 " paddocks," which occur, strangely, right in the middle of great 

 stretches of jungle. Setting aside a palpably absurd suggestion 

 that these clearings were effected by blacks, it was not easy for 

 either geologist or botanist to offer a suggestion as to how they 

 came to be. Appropriately enough, an interesting ornithological 

 suggestion on the subject was advanced. Dr. Cleland, noting 

 that fig-trees were encroaching on the open spaces in many instances, 

 suggested that the cleared areas were formerly much larger, and 

 that the jungle had gradually been creeping over them through 

 the centuries, birds spreading the seeds and fig-trees fertilizing 

 the soil. Be that as it may, these " plains" are a decided asset 

 to the mountains. riicrc is a limit to the fascination of pushing 

 through tlic (linily-lit jungles of sul)-tr()pical mountains, and 

 when this limit is rt';u lied it is good to be able to step out into 

 spaces " wheri' tlu' smi strikes [rw and the fresh wind cleanly 

 blows." 



It was in one of these free spaces that our half-dozen tents and 

 marquee were pitched. Walled in by jungle on three sides, there 



