THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 81 



cheap railway excursion to Rainbow. Cheap it certainly must be 

 admitted to be, 22s. 2d. being the fare for a trip of 534 miles, 

 with the right of breaking our return journey as often as we 

 pleased — a privilege we very liberally availed ourselves of. 



Rainbow is 42 miles north of Dimboola, and, as will be seen 

 by reference to the map, is right in the heart of the Mallee. The 

 traffic at the time of our visit was not extensive, three trains per 

 week sufficing for all requirements, but later on, when the harvest 

 had been reaped, there would naturally be a considerable increase. 

 So far as excursionists were concerned, we were the only three 

 who took tickets for the whole distance, none of the others going 

 beyond Dimboola. It may perhaps be as well here to state that 

 our object was principally the collecting of plants and beetles, 

 and although we, of course, did not neglect other branches of 

 natural history, these were the two that received most of our 

 attention. 



The morning of our departure— Wednesday, 24th October — 

 was a most disagreeable one, a strong north wind blowing, accom- 

 panied by clouds of dust, and we were therefore not at all sorry 

 to leave all this unpleasantness behind us. After a tedious 

 journey of thirteen hours, including an unlooked-for detention of 

 an hour at the small township of Lubeck, we reached Dimboola 

 a little after 9 o'clock at night, and, as the weather had turned very 

 cold, we were glad to have some tea and turn in. 



Leaving Dimboola on the following (Thursday) morning at 

 8.30 we reached Rainbow at about 11, and, entrusting our 

 belongings to one of the two local storekeepers, by name Zim- 

 merman, we started for Lake Albacutya, some eight miles distant 

 northerly. Knowing the reputation of the Mallee for scarcity of 

 water, we took the precaution to provide ourselves with some 

 liquid refreshment — a wise'step on our part, for not a drop was 

 procurable until our return. The country all the way to the lake 

 is most miserable looking, everything, even at this early period of 

 summer, presenting a dried-up appearance, but there were occa- 

 sional fields of wheat, which, owing to the exceptionally fine 

 season, were all looking well, and their beautiful green colour 

 was in marked contrast to their surroundings, as well as a great 

 relief to the eyes. Along the track the timber is mostly She-oak, 

 Casuarina glaiica, Murray Pines, Callitris verrucosa, and two 

 species of Mallee, Eucalyptus gracilis and E. tmcinata, many of 

 the two first named being dead. On the eucalypts there was very 

 little insect life, but under the loose bark of the She-oaks we 

 secured a few small carab beetles, also two species of Adelium. 

 Our greatest good fortune, however, was the securing a number of 

 the large carab, Gigadema intermedia, a beetle about one and 

 a half inches long by half an inch broad across the elytra. It 

 seems rather strange that a carab, of all beetles, should seek such 



