THK VICTORIAN NATUKALIST. 



191 



EXCURSION TO WILSON'S PROMONTORY. 

 General.— By A. D. Hardy, F.L.S. 

 The last annual report of the Club contained the statement 

 (Fict. Nat, xxii., p. 41) that the greater part of Wilson's 

 Promontory had at last been permanently reserved for the 

 l)urposes of a National Park, mainly as a refuge for those 

 members of our Australian fauna which are so rapidly disappear- 

 ing before the march of civilization, and later, when framing the 

 annual list of excursions, the committee felt it incumbent upon 

 them to arrange a visit to the Park as the extended ex- 

 cursion, which has become customary at Christmas time, so that 

 the Club might be in a position to speak with authority on the 

 present condition of its fauna and flora and future possibilities. 



The history of the movement leading up to the permanent 

 reservation has been well detailed by Mr. T. S. Hall, M,A., in 

 our journal some time ago (Vict. Nat., xxl, p. 128), and needs 

 no further mention now. Much disappointment was, however, 

 felt when from the Gazette notice it was found that nowhere had 

 the Park^ny sea-frontage, though some sixty miles of coast line 

 was available. In other words, that a strip of land half a mile in 

 width, temporarily reserved only, extended all round the Park, 

 completely cutting it off from the sea. 



Also included in the excluded portion is the Seaforth town- 

 ship site, situated at the north-eastern extremity of the Promon- 

 tory, which is locally known as the Singapore Peninsula. This 

 includes Mounts Singapore and Hunter, the peninsula and mount 

 being named after the barque Singapore, wrecked there many 

 years ago. 



Before giving any details of the journey made by the Club 

 party, I will briefly refer to the physiography and general 

 characteristics of the Promontory, and in considering these it will 

 be helpful to refer to the map published in the Naturalist for 

 July last {Vict. Nat., xxii., p. 44), in which are indicated the 

 positions of the principal physical features. 



Wilson's Promontory forms part of what appears to be the 

 remains of an old land-bridge between Australia and Tasmania, 

 and at no distant date was probably an island. Now it is_ a 

 rugged and irregular mass of granite, connected with the main- 

 land by a narrow isthmus of sand dunes, &c., about fourteen miles 

 long by four wide. (See the geological and ethnological reports.) 



Wind and wave have piled the sand in dunes along the coast 

 in such a way that the water which falls from the granite hills in 

 innumerable small streams is dammed back and imprisoned to 

 form extensive and often densely vegetated morasses or swamps. 

 Through these the water finds its way, often by much meandering, 

 until it breaks through the sand dunes and escapes to the sea; its 



