108 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



15th March (Sunday). — The morning broke cloudy, and it 

 soon began to rain, and continued steadily all day, so we did not 

 shift camp. The rocks near at hand proved to be olive-green, 

 grey, brown and yellow slates, showing great jointing and 

 numerous threads and veins, up to 3 inches, of quartz. The 

 beds appeared to have a similar strike and dip to those near 

 Wyeeboo. 



i6th March. — The rain ceased during the previous evening, 

 and early in the morning we resumed our journey. For some 

 3 miles we passed over the stream terraces, then crossed Waterfall 

 Creek, and Tallangatta Creek for the last time, about 6^ miles 

 further on. There was at that time no surface running water in 

 the latter — only a mass of pebbles, with the water probably beneath 

 them. The track now bore to the east, along the valley of 

 Buckeen Creek, and about 2 ^ miles on we reached Goodwin's 

 Hotel, in the small, remote township of Cravenville. The low 

 spur between these two streams consists of grey, yellow and blue 

 slates and fine sandstones. The blue slates are exceedingly like 

 the graptolite shales near Lancefield, but no Graptolites were 

 found in the outcrops examined. Mr. W. H. Ferguson, of the 

 Department of Mines, did, however, some years later, find some 

 in this locality.* They have been determinedf by Mr. T. S. 

 Hall, M.A., as belonging to the genera Climacograptus, Diplo- 

 graptus, Glossograptus and Dicellograptus, and prove that the 

 beds belong to the Upper Ordovician series. The strata strike 

 N.W. and dip to N.E. at about 87°, showing that an anticline 

 occurs, and that Tallangatta Creek runs for at least some 20 miles 

 along approximately the crest of it. 



A noticeable feature on the road between the crossing and 

 Cravenville was the large number of ant beds of the common 

 " Meat Ant," Formica purpurea. It is puzzling to know why 

 these ants so often settle on "hard roads, where, owing to their habit 

 of pouring forth from their holes in hundreds when disturbed by 

 passing traffic, multitudes of them are killed and maimed. 



Tallangatta Creek valley is a wide open one, with farms on 

 both sides, up to the junction of Buckeen Creek ; above there to 

 its source at Mt. Benambra it is narrow, and lies in wild, 

 uncleared country. From Cravenville onwards the route taken 

 was through the forests of the mountains of Benambra, where in 

 over 200 miles of country traversed we saw only 10 habitations. 

 Cravenville lies in the narrow valley of the Buckeen, amidst a 

 forest of living timber consisting chiefly of Peppermints, and 

 here we camped. 



17th March. — We had found our horses not quite able for the 



* " Report on the Geology of Portion of the County of Benambra," Monthly 

 Prog. Rcpt. Geol. Surv. Vict., No. 11, Feb., 1900, p. 21. 



t " Report on the Graptolites of the Dart River and Cravenville District," 

 ibid , Nos. 6 and 7, Sept. and Oct., 1899, p. 13. 



