'i'MK VICTORIAN NATUHALlS'r. 167 



considerably as one approaches the lower Silurian country beyond 

 the Blacks' Spur. Axe and fire have left their mark, while the 

 results of different conditions of soil and climate are seen in the 

 plant life. The tall trees are replaced by shorter and scrubbier 

 growths, and the undergrowth is of a coarser and stronger nature. 

 Crossing a few miles of undulating country through which run 

 several headwater streams of the Acheron River, and on one of 

 which (Fisher's Creek) the little village of Narbethong is situated, 

 we climbed a high spur before dropping down into Marysville. 

 This spur has been burnt out as regards all undergrowth, but the 

 large trees had not been altogether destroyed, as from the 

 blackened trunks young foliage was again sprouting. On the 

 ground between the snow concealed very little else than bracken 

 and grass-like plants, with a few hardy legumes, such as 

 Platylobium, &c., of very recent growth. About Narbethong 

 there are in cultivation many fine Blackwood trees, A. melanoxylon, 

 in bloom, better than we had ever seen before, of splendid 

 symmetry, and affording excellent shade, in every respect 

 different to their asymmetrical, stragglingly foliaged kindred of the 

 gullies a few miles away, and suggesting possibilities of 

 successful experiment with other of Victoria's gully vegetation. 



Leaving Narbethong and Fisher's Creek behind, we climbed 

 the spur beyond. The third animal, other than birds, we saw- 

 here — a Wombat, Phascolomys mitchelli, Owen, standing with its 

 legs deep in snow, and with the ends of a grass-like plant 

 projecting from its mouth, being a very conspicuous object. It 

 was far from any cover, and stood motionless, and apparently 

 numbed with cold, until we stood within six feet of it. Our voices, 

 however, caused it to beat a precipitous retreat down the steep 

 hillside, a shower of snow following as the weighed down bracken 

 fronds were released and the stems acted like springs. Every- 

 where the stems of buried bracken fronds appeared like countless 

 croquet hoops. We followed back the Wombat's tracks to ascertain 

 what plant the animal had been eating, and found it to be Xerotes 

 longi/olia, of which the leaves had been pulled up, and the sweet, 

 white, succulent parts near the root eaten. Here and there we 

 found this Xerotes with the comparatively hard green leaves 

 cropped off to the surface of the ground, the root parts being 

 neglected. 



At Marysville on the following day the roadway was free of 

 snow, except in sheltered parts, but the vegetation was mostly 

 covered, so we set off to visit the well-known Stevenson Falls. 

 This once beautiful gully had also been burnt out. It was once 

 filled with tall timber and fern trees up to 40 feet in height, and 

 widi much of the best of our valley shrubs, but now there 

 remained nothing but the blackened trunks of burnt trees, and 

 the frondless stems of tall fern trees, which, silhouetted against the 



