THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 117 



cold for camping out. Until the opening of the narrow gauge rail- 

 way from Ferntree Gully, during the past summer, the Gembrook 

 district was almost out of reach of the naturalist with only a brief 

 holiday at his disposal. Now, however, in the course of a few hours 

 he can reach the terminus of the line, about 40 miles E.S.E. of 

 Melbourne, situated in the heart of the ranges, about 1,000 feet 

 above sea level. Here, close at hand, is a reserve of nearly a 

 square mile, with several beautiful creeks running through it, well 

 timbered with fine forest trees, and with all kinds of shrubs and 

 undergrowth. In view of the many advantages of the district it 

 was therefore determined to try Gembrook as the locality for the 

 1 901 " camp-out," and none of those who took part m it can have 

 any cause to regret the committee's selection. Hearing so much of 

 the enjoyable outing at Healesville last year, several ladies early 

 announced their intention of making a short stay under canvas, 

 and finally the camp was graced with the presence of five 

 members of the gentler sex, who, with thirteen gentlemen, made up 

 a total of eighteen, as follows : — Mrs. G. Coghill, Miss S. Coch- 

 rane, Miss Gabriel, Miss O'Rorke, Miss WoUen, Messrs. F. G. A. 

 Barnard, A. Campbell, jun., G. Coghill, S. W. Fulton, J. A. Ker- 

 shaw, — Mattingley, W. J. M'Caw, R. Russell, Dr. C. Sutton, A. 

 WoUen, and G. Weindorfer, with D. Le Souef and A. Mattingley 

 as co-leaders. 



The majority of the party left Melbourne by the early train on 

 Friday morning, the 8th November, arriving at Gembrook at 12 

 o'clock. The weather being fine, the trip proved delightful, and 

 the distant views of Western Port and other places from the new 

 portion of the railway line were much admired, as were also the 

 peeps obtained into the dense fern gullies, as the little train 

 wound round their heads or ran alongside them. Then again, 

 after passing for some miles through scrub-covered country, one 

 suddenly came on cleared grassed land, crops, or orchards, and 

 distant inland views of the ranges were generally to be obtained 

 here which are otherwise hidden by the tall timber. The 

 Gembrook station is practically surrounded by scrub, although 

 just before reaching it one passes through a beautiful cleared 

 property. On arriving at the station we found Mr. Gerald 

 Backhouse waiting to convey all our numerous and bulky 

 packages and luggage to the camp, about a mile distant, but we 

 all walked along the shady road, and observed with delight the 

 beautiful display of wild flowers in the otherwise rough bush. 

 Tetratheca largely predominated, and its delicate pink and white 

 flowers of varying shades, in such quantities, was a sight worth 

 coming a long way to see, and our lady members could not help 

 picking bunches, as they said, to decorate the tables. 



On arriving at the camp we found that a site had been chosen 

 and partly made ready for our reception by Mr. H. Shaw. The 



