"^"S-. 1 AuDAS, An Eastertide in the Victorian Pyrenees. i,7 



1912 J ' y J/ 



To the ordinary observer there is just a tinge of sadness in 

 the thought that plants which flourish all the year in their 

 modest vestment of pale or sombre green should only attain 

 a transitory beauty with the death of the year, but it is just 

 one of the many processes of nature which are so necessary 

 for the rehal)ilitation to follow. Even we, as Tom Moore has 

 said. " must wither away to let others succeed." 



Flourishing more generally in the gullies were great quantities 

 of the Tough Rice-flower, Pimelea axifiora — a shrub which 

 yields fibre of great strength and durability, and of which 

 genus there are twenty species known native to Victoria, while 

 upon higher ground grew the beautiful Banksia marginala. both 

 j^rominent and plentiful, laden with its quaint bottle-brush-like 

 flowers. 



I now bade farewell to the beautiful gullies, and began the 

 ascent to the top of the mount, and was able to form an opinion 

 of the immense magnitude of the timber with which the whole 

 area of the mountain had been covered before its giants had 

 fallen victims to the saw-millers, for here, at an altitude 

 probably too high to allow profitable transport, the trees were 

 magnificent. I measured a fallen Messmate, Eucalyptus obliqua, 

 typical of the standing trees, and found it to be 162 feet. This 

 species, with the Blue Gum, E. globulus, were the princii)al 

 timber trees noted there. 



Unlike the dreary, barren appearance presented by most 

 granite boulders, those of Mount Cole were beautiful to view, 

 being invested by lichens and mosses. Of the former, the 

 most abundant were Clathrina aggregata, Sticta {Stictina) 

 crocata, Cladonia vcrticillata, Parmelia physodes, and /-'. 

 placorhodioides ; and of the latter, Dicnmum angiistinervis and 

 Rhizogomtm distichum. Of the many waterfalls on the moun- 

 tain, the glorious White Falls, at the head of the main fern 

 gully, is by far the most beautiful, where the waters, after 

 winding secretly and circuitously among the granite boulders, 

 descend in a central drop of, possibly, one hundred feet, with 

 many minor cascades adding their volume from different points 

 on either side. Thence they force their way noisily through 

 the fern gully, in many places so hidden by the dense vege- 

 tation that their presence can only be detected by the roar of 

 their j)rogress. Before descending in the fall just mentioned, 

 the waters wend their way through a cave, whose dimensions I 

 was, unfortunately, unable to ascertain, not being provided 

 with a lantern. However, I })enetrated some distance in (by 

 the light of matches, which were almost immediately lilown 

 out by the strong current of air rushing through the passage), 

 and reached a point where there were passages which probably 

 led to other caves, and returned rather reluctantly, as from my 



