Jan., 1908.] THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 141 



EXCURSION TO WERRIBEE GORGE. 



It is exactly twenty years since this Club made its first excursion 

 to the Bacchus Marsh district, to which the railway had just been 

 opened. Then the Werribee Gorge was known only as a rugged, 

 picturesque spot, and as such it still remains. A few years later 

 a then member of this Club, Mr. C. C. Brittlebank, took up his 

 residence in the vicinity, and soon found it was a good locality 

 for birds, so in October, 1890, an ornithological excursion was 

 made by a small party of members, and fifty species of birds 

 recorded. Later, in the course of his rambles, Mr. Brittlebank 

 endorsed certain opinions regarding the geology which have 

 made the Gorge famous, and therefore I think this Club can 

 fairly claim to have had some hand in giving it the prominence, as a 

 suitable locality for nature study, that it now enjoys. On our 

 first excursion, briefly referred to in the Naturalist for December, 

 1887 {V. JV., iv., 114), we reached only as far as the entrance to 

 the Gorge. The next excursions, in October, 1890, and October, 

 1891, were for ornithology, but on the occasion of the last- 

 mentioned trip the geology was also examined, and the supposed 

 evidences of glacial action found by Mr. Brittlebank were confirmed 

 by one of the party, Mr. G. Sweet, F.G.S., and these two members 

 contributed a joint paper on the subject to the Adelaide 

 meeting of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of 

 Science in September, 1893 (Proc. A.A.A.S., v., p. 136). In 

 April, 1894, and November, 1894 {Vict. Nat., xi., 54 and 125), 

 excursion parties again visited the Gorge, and studied the geology 

 under Mr. Brittlebank. No further excursion was made by this 

 Club until Monday, nth November (King's Birthday), when 

 sixteen members and friends, including six ladies, left town by 

 the morning train, and, after a tedious journey, reached Bacchus 

 Marsh an hour and a half late ; here they found the leader for the 

 day, Mr. F. L. Billinghurst, anxiously awaiting their arrival. He 

 had previously suggested hiring a conveyance to take the party 

 some distance on the way, and the plan was a wise one, for we 

 were saved some 3_^ miles of rough walking on a rather hot 

 morning. Our road led along the southern side of the Werribee, 

 and ended close under the steep hillside on top of which is the 

 railway to Ballarat. About a mile from where we left the vehicle 

 the entrance to the Gorge came in sight, and it was necessary to 

 cross the river. Fortunately there was little water in the stream, 

 and, as there is a superabundance of stones, this was easily 

 accomplished. Close by a fine Black Wattle, Acacia inollissima, 

 was in full bloom, and filled the air with its delicate perfume. A 

 little further along, the glacial till, full of stones of all sizes and 

 shapes, was disclosed in a small section. Hereabouts the bright 

 yellow-rayed florets of Senecio spathulatus attracted our attention ; 

 another member of the genus, S. odoratus, was conspicuous on 



