^°''^g^7^^''] Williamson, A Cycle Trip through East Gippsland. 75 



up on the cutting which winds round the side of the steep hill. 

 Across the road, at intervals, run several watercourses, which 

 flow down into steep, scrub-filled gullies Clambering down 

 one which seemed from the road a typical Otway Forest musk 

 gully, I found a marked difference. The gullies of Otway 

 Forest have not the number and variety of climbing plants 

 which we fimd in East Gippsland. The appearance of the 

 place, lit up by the summer sun almost overhead, reminded me 

 of pictures I have seen of Brazilian forests, and I thought at 

 once of monkeys and jaguars, and almost found myself ex- 

 pecting to see those animals come climbing along the vegetable 

 cables to look at the intruder in their domain. Plants of the 

 Victorian Passion-flower, Passiflora cinnabarina, were here, 

 but none with flowers or fruit. 



My next trip was up the Snowy River, about two miles, to 

 an interesting limestone bluff, on the summit of which was an 

 apiary, and from which a lovely view of the Snowy valley 

 could be got. Near its base plants of the rare Adriana touientosa 

 occur, from which I gathered a good supply. Some time ago 

 a land-slip occurred here, part of the bluff being precipitated 

 into the river, blocking the road which runs between it and the 

 river. In company with Mr. Rowe, Young's Creek was 

 visited, with the result that one flowering plant of the epiphytal 

 orchid Sarcochiliis parvi floras was secured.* 



My next move was on to Buchan. I found the road good 

 for cycling except that I had to walk a mile or so up a steep 

 hill. By striking off before I came to Nowa Nowa on to a new 

 track which trends north-west and picks up the Nowa to 

 Buchan road, I saved a few miles and a bad hill. The road then 

 led up-hill for 8 miles through a forest of tall eucalypts. I saw 

 no water, no scrub, and consequently very few birds — Magpies, 

 Gang-gangs, and a Pallid Cuckoo or two. Then along the 

 dusty coach-road (Bruthen to Buchan), near Half-way House, 

 a roadside cottage where tea and soft drinks are dispensed, 

 I came to a patch of Red Bottle-brush scrub, Callistemon 

 lanceolatus, and a forest of Mealy Stringybark trees. Eucalyptus 

 pulvernlenta — the former with a few lingering blooms, and the 

 latter with its young leaves quite white, as if dusted with flour. 

 The mealy bloom on these leaves contrasts in a remarkable way 

 with the very dark foliage of the tree generally. It is one of 

 the few eucalypts with opposite leaves on the full-grown tree. 

 From the train, passing near Morwell, the same eucalypt can 

 be observed. The approach to Buchan is like that to Orbost 

 — down a steep hill, only that the hill is much longer at the 

 former place. 



The Buchan valley is wide, and flanked by bare hills. The 

 pretty little river, the Buchan, winds through the valley, and 



