Dec, 1908.] THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 127 



The occurrence of an alga in such a remarkable position is 

 most interesting, and shows that the most unlikely localities are 

 often productive of unlooked-for results in both zoology and 

 botany. 



From the summit of the " rock basin," as Prof. Skeats calls it, 

 we had a good view of the plantations made by the Forest 

 Department some years ago. These amount to some hundreds 

 of acres, and in the distance appear to consist of various species 

 of eucalyptus, acacia, pines, &c., but I understand the result of 

 the experiment is not considered very satisfactory. We now 

 turned northwards through a park-like growth of Banksias, 

 Casuarinas, Native Cherries, Blackwoods, &:c. ; one Bursaria had 

 a stem diameter of fully 12 inches. Among the herbaceous 

 plants seen were Arthropodium strictum, Bmxhardia uinhellata, 

 Diuris macidata, &c., till we came to the southernmost gorge of 

 the range, which we ascended to the main ridge. From the 

 saddle we followed the crest of the range to the south, which rises 

 sharply to the trig, station. The track wound between immense 

 masses of granite of all shapes and sizes, and among these grow 

 numerous trees of the Blue Gum, Eucalyptus glohidus. Though by 

 no means stunted, the trees assume a more branched habit than 

 those we are accustomed to see in plantations about Melbourne. 



The topmost stone was reached soon after mid-day, when a great 

 panorama presented itself to our view. An hour was pleasantly 

 passed in refreshing the inner man, and admiring the distant 

 landscape. Some fifteen miles to the south Geelong was plainly 

 visible, and, further still, the sand-dunes at Barvvon Heads. Close 

 at hand were cultivated fields and crops in every direction, but to 

 the north-east, towards Melbourne, the powder magazines at 

 Laverton were the extent of our view, Melbourne and suburbs 

 being enshrouded in haze. How different the prospect from that 

 seen by the first white man who ascended the peak, Captain 

 Flinders, on ist May, 1802. Wonderful to relate, neither tourists 

 nor fire have yet destroyed the tripod erected by the trigononiet- 

 rical surveyors in the early sixties, marking the highest point, 

 1,154 feet above sea level. While lunching under the shelter of 

 the rocks, a couple of black and white butterflies, probably Delias 

 harpalyce, fluttered above the tree-tops, and it is somewhat remark- 

 able that I noted the same fact {Vict. iYa^.,iii., p. 102) on my last 

 visit to the peak, more than twenty years before. Presently we saw 

 the first of the white migratory butterflies, Belenois Java, of the sea- 

 son. A few dragon-flies occurred at this high elevation, but beetles 

 were very scarce. The rock basin we had visited earlier was plainly 

 visible from the summit, but so dwarfed as to be almost unrecog- 

 nizable. 



Having spent about an hour on the top, we descended to 

 the saddle again, and climbed the next peak, on the sides of 



