IO MlLLIGAN. Notes on a Trip to the Stirling. Ranee. I |; ", U1 I 



' 6 6 [ ist July 



produced here. Bird-life generally was very abundant. I was 

 delighted to meet with such old feathered friends as the Bell-Bird 

 (Oreoica cristata) and the gregarious White-browed Babbler 

 PomUtorhinus superciliosus), both of which were everywhere 

 numerous. I also secured a specimen of the White-bellied Shrike- 

 Tit (Falcunculus leucogaster). We examined some lakes and 

 swamps in the locality, but the examination did not afford any- 

 thing remarkable. 



It was not until the morning of the 26th that we really began 

 our journey to the Ranges. Our party was supplemented by 

 our camp manager and a camp assistant. Our baggage, stores, 

 and general equipment rilled a dray, which was drawn by two 

 horses. The journey occupied some fourteen days, and was 

 wholly performed by us on foot. The distance traversed by us 

 during the period, including deviations, mountain ascents, and 

 side explorations, amounted to fully 200 miles. The weather 

 was distinctly equinoctial, and we only experienced two or three 

 tine days throughout the whole trip. Day after day we were 

 drenched to the skin by the heavy rain-squalls, and frequently 

 in pitching our camps we found the sites running with surface 

 water. 



Leaving Tenterden, we cut into the western extremity of the 

 Ranges, taking a north-easterly direction and making Solomon's 

 Well our first camp. Leaving that camp, we struck an almost 

 easterly course, cutting through the foothills, and reaching the 

 north side of the Ranges, which we skirted until we pitched a 

 temporary camp, a few miles west of Yetermirrup Spring. Our 

 third camp was Yetermirrup, and our fourth one on Toll's Creek, 

 in Toll's Pass, near the base of Mt. Toolbrunup, our objective. 

 On our return journey we retraced our steps from there to 

 Yetermirrup, and thence to the turn-off at the Redgum Pass. 

 We followed the Pass until we reached the Redgum Springs, 

 where we made our last camp. From there we struck south- 

 westerly through the foothills to the Young River, and thence 

 westerly to Tenterden. 



The country passed through was diversified in character. The 

 Ranges themselves we found to be a succession of peaks, more or 

 less conical in shape, and of varying heights, and they appeared 

 to arise perpendicularly out of the vast surrounding plains. They 

 were remarkable, inasmuch as they began abruptly at Tenterden 

 and extended due easterly some 70 miles and then again abruptly 

 ended. The breadth of the chain from north to south varied 

 from 6 to 10 miles. Viewed from the top of a peak having any 

 altitude, the others appeared like the mountain peaks shown 

 on a physical atlas to indicate relative heights. 



On the north side of the Ranges gravelly foothills and rocky 

 outcrops occurred between the defined line of peaks and the 

 plains. The plains on the north for some twenty miles were 

 dotted with a number of lakes and lakelets. The mountain 

 peaks were composed of horizontal layers of vitreous sandstone. 



