THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 21 



of the same month for the Mitchell, travelling up that river, the 

 VVentvvorth, and the Dargo to the foot of the Alps, which he 

 evidently crossed somewhere to the south-east of Mount Hotham, 

 and struck the Cobungra Creek, a tributary of the Mitta, then 

 made his way, probably over the Bogong High Plains, to Bogong 

 itself on the 3rd December, 1854 ; from there he made back to 

 Omeo, and wrote the special despatch previously referred to. 

 This portion of his third journey I shall have occasion to refer to 

 again, but will first finish the itinerary of the trip. He refers to 

 the large numbers of Bogong Moths, Agrotis spina, among the 

 rocks covered with the spreading Alpine pine, Adocarpus 

 montana (now Nageia alpina), and says one of the main 

 branches of the Mitta Mitta has its sources in Mt. Latrobe 

 (? the Big River), and those of another, as well as those of the 

 Ovens and Mitchell, lay in lower country not far distant. During 

 this part of the journey he added 60 species to the flora of 

 Victoria. Spending a day or two at Omeo, from whence he 

 sent a long account of his alpine treasures to Sir W. Hooker — 

 published in Hooker's " Journal of Botany and Kew Garden 

 Miscellany," vol. vii. (1855), P^S^ 233— he left that place about 

 the middle of December, travelling in a north-easterly direction 

 towards Kosciusko. He ascended Mt. Tambo on 17th December, 

 and then visited the Munyang Mountains, which I believe is the 

 old name for the group in which Kosciusko is situated, and now 

 known as the Snowy Mountains. Here he ascended "the most 

 northern alpine hill " on New Year's Day, 1855, but whether it 

 was the peak of Kosciusko, named by Lendenfeld Mt. Townsend, 

 7,357 feet, is uncertain ; however, the next highest peak is now 

 known as Mueller's Peak, in his honour, and is only 85 feet lower 

 than Australia's best (Kitson, A.A-.A.S., vii. (1898), p. 367 ; also 

 Curran, Proc. Lin. Soc. N.S.W., 1897, part 4, page 796 ; and 

 Lendenfeld in " Reports of Mining Registrars, Victoria," March, 

 1866, page 72). From Kosciusko he returned to the Buchan 

 River, whence he wrote to Sir W. Hooker again, under date of 

 22nd January, 1855. In this he says : — " I am now preparing to 

 revisit the Cabbage-tree country beyond the Snowy River, which 

 I had (on account of many unforeseen adversities — the hostihty of 

 the natives, and the unfavourable weather) but little opportunity in 

 exploring last year," and concludes by saying : — " After having 

 traversed now the main chains of the Snowy Mountains in so 

 many directions that I am led to believe that the plants 

 mentioned in this and the two previous letters, and those 

 mentioned in my reports, comprehend almost completely the 

 Alps flora of this continent, I wandered for days over the Snowy 

 Mountains without being able to add a single species to the 

 collections." No wonder collectors in later years had few chances 

 of immortalizing themselves when they had to follow such a naan 



