^"'■■'^fiT'"'] Barnard, In the Western Lake District. 165 



lakes is 163 feet, the level ot BuUen-Merri being iS feet below 

 Camperdown railway station. 



It was now time to make for Camperdown, and 1 ascended 

 the steep roadway from the isthmus to the public gardens. A 

 squall arose on Bullen-^Ierri, and soon waves were beating on 

 the shore, creating quite a surf. In the road-cutting may be 

 seen further exposures of the Hampden tuffs. A neat shelter 

 for picnickers is placed in a good position on the isthmus, and 

 there is another in the recreation reserve, while from a pavilion 

 and look-out in the gardens proper a good idea of the whole 

 scene can be obtained, though to some extent marred by the 

 growth of the Californian pines growing around. I think the 

 approach from the western side — the one I had fortunately 

 adopted — gives by far the most imposing view of this remark- 

 able scene. 



From the eastern slope of the hill the town of Camperdown 

 lay several hundred feet below me, with ]Mount Leura (1,030 

 feet) and its crater guarding it on the south-east. It was quite 

 dark b}^ the time I reached the hotel, so nothing more could be 

 done that evening but make inquiries and fix up a plan for the 

 morrow (Easter Monday), my intention being to walk through 

 a portion, at least, of the Stony Rises — another remarkable 

 feature of this portion of Victoria. 



As it was necessary to get the early train towards town, I 

 had only time to do a rapid survey round the base of Mount 

 Leura before breakfast, leaving the investigation of that curious 

 landmark for some future time. 



Soon after leaving Camperdown stone walls begin to ap]:)ear, 

 and at Weerite (6 miles) the fringe of the stony country is 

 touched. At the next station, Pomborneit, some huge masses 

 of piled-up basalt occur close to the railway station, while Lake 

 Purrumbete, a beautiful sheet of fresh water, lies a few miles 

 to the south. Presently Mount Porndon comes into view on 

 the same side — a high cone, apparently, of loose blocks of 

 porous lava, rising, perhaps, 500 feet above the plain, and 

 dotted with trees of various kinds. I had been advised to alight 

 at Stonylord, the next station, and commence my walk through 

 the Rises, which extend as far as the Pirron Yallock Creek, 

 a distance of about seven miles. I was soon charmed with 

 the picturesqueness of the scene, but find it difficult to put 

 on paper an adequate description of this peculiar tract of 

 country 



One of the first writers to put into print his impressions of 

 the Stony Rises was James Bonwick, who, in 1858, under the 

 title of " Western Victoria : its Geography, (icology, and Social 

 Condition," published an account of a tour made through 



