THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 117 



Launching Place ! What a misleading name 1 On hearing it 

 for the first time, one, not initiated into the mysteries and incon- 

 gruities of our local geographical nomenclature, might conjure up 

 a scene on the Gippsland Lakes or the sea coast, where some 

 stately ship might take its initial plunge into the broad waters. 

 The shallow, crooked stream, hurrying and gurgling 'raid scented 

 shrubberies, its surface broken by boulder and snag, could hardly 

 accommodate a canoe for more than a few hundred yards at a 

 stretch. Yet here, in days that passed with the opening up of 

 country by road and rail, miners and others did their carrying 

 trade by means of flat-bottomed boats — themselves often wading 

 whilst towing — to parts remote from the highway. And, at this 

 spot, the boats, kept high and dry when not in use, were launched 

 for the water carriage of merchandise. Hence the name. 



Launching Place is well situated as a base whence excursions 

 may be made up several tributaries of the Yarra. In the upper 

 parts of these small streams there exists, in natural state, a wealth 

 of that native vegetation which is, in many other parts of the 

 State, fast disappearing before the axe of the selector. 



Two important tributaries, from the naturalist's point of view, 

 debouch into the Yarra a short distance from the hotel, which, as 

 in January, we made our head-quarters. These two are the Don, 

 dignified with the title of river, and the Yarra Rivulet. The former 

 has its source in the range which forms the divide between this 

 and other streams flowing southerly to the Yarra and the tribu- 

 taries of the Watts River. 



The source of the Don, as ascertained by our aneroid observa- 

 tions, is something over 1,500 feet above sea-level, and during a 

 run of about six miles the water falls about 1,100 feet to the 

 Yarra. This gives, roughly, a drop of 183 feet to the mile, or a 

 grade of i in 30. 



The Britannia Creek emerges from among spurs of the range 

 which separates the Gippsland and Evelyn waters, and, flowing 

 westerly some six miles to its confluence with the Yarra Rivulet, 

 continues as part of that stream another mile and half to the 

 Yarra, the main drainage channel of Evelyn county. The nursery 

 of Britannia Creek is granitic country, while the Don rises among 

 dacite rocks. Both streams flow over an intermediate stretch of 

 undulating silurian country before reaching the main river flats. 



Launching Place was reached about 10.45 ^-^-j ^^^^ Saturday's 

 rambling was near home, the available time before lunch being 

 spent on the flat between the railway and the Yarra Rivulet, 

 There we found a luxuriant growth of rushes and sedges, and, 

 sheltered by them, such small plants as Viola hederacea, 

 the buttercups, lianunculus rivularis and B. iappaceus, while 

 bolder shrub plants fringing the rivulet where chiefly Cassinia 

 aculeata, Aster stellulatus, a few wattles, and occasional young 



