8 O'DoNOGHUE, Rambles in Raak. [v^^*^xx??ii 



extent as to permit of passengers, if they felt so disposed, 

 making extended excursions along the surrounding thorough- 

 fares, or into the country, as the case might be. This innovation 

 was hailed with delight by many train-weary travellers during 

 the daylight hours, but occasioned quite contrary feelings 

 during the hours of darkness, when the mercury barely climbed 

 to a higher altitude than 40 degrees, and one's nerves were 

 frazzled by the loud and persistent bacchanalian songs of parties 

 of uniformed roysterers. 



We had not long quitted the environs of the city when we 

 realized that the published reports respecting the bounteous 

 season by which the State had been visited w^ere by no means 

 exaggerated. Wherever the eye elected to range over the 

 more or less level basaltic plain traversed by the line, acres of 

 rank cereal crops, or of native and exotic grasses, were to be 

 discerned. Later on the Silurian, with its swelling contours, 

 ushered in the eucalypts with their tender green sprays, the 

 wild-flowers in variety and profusion, and the birds busy with 

 the cares pertaining to the nesting season. Still later, the 

 brushwood-overgrown spoil-heaps of the abandoned alluvial 

 claims showed up prominently among the dark, rugged boles 

 and \dvid green foliage of the ironbarks, Eacalyptiis sideroxyion, 

 and, as the train sped past and through these imperishable 

 mementos of former men and manners, the busy and varied 

 scenes the now silent and deserted areas had witnessed came 

 crowding fast on one's fancy. Gone is the gold-bearing wash 

 the palaeozoic rocks had secreted, and gone, too, are the men 

 who sought it. 



At Cope Cope and Swanwater the aspect of the level Tertiary 

 plains was pleasing in the extreme, as mile after mile of the 

 tall, succulent, and billowing crops they nourished stretched 

 away on either side of the railway to the circling horizon, 

 rendering, by their vastness, the homesteads they encompassed 

 like miniature toys. Where pasturages occurred, sleek-skinned 

 horses and cattle and dropsical -looking sheep and lambs viewed 

 the passing train with lazy contentedness. Introduced weeds 

 rioted everywhere. Former cultivated fields blazed with the 

 pale yellow rays of the Cape Dandelion, Cryptostemma calendu- 

 laceiim, and among the crops the Hoary Cress, Lepidiiim draba, 

 the Stonecrop, Lithospermum arvense, and the Wild Mustard, 

 Sinapis arvensis, showed prominentl}^, and along the head- 

 lands the Musk Erodium, Erodium moschatum. Fumitory, 

 Fumaria officinalis, and Mallow, Malva niccsensis, dominated 

 all other plants, the last-named forming, with the Small Nettle. 

 Urtica itrens, interspersed, immense growths, ofttimes much 

 taller than the fencing posts. 



In the railway reserve areas of yellow, blue, and white 



