194 'Bar's A.RV, Jotniieys of Dr. Neumayer in Victoria. [vd"^xxxiv 



Bogong moths appeared about the camp. Next morning the 

 wind rose considerably, blowing from the north. Numerous 

 snow-fields had to be crossed, and at ii a.m. they reached the 

 highest point (7,176 feet) in Australia,* the temperature being 

 54.5". They then went to Snowy Peak, which is about forty 

 feet lower, when they saw a storm approaching from the north- 

 east, and had to hurry back towards their camp, some seven 

 miles distant. Before reaching this disaster overtook the party, 

 His man Edward, in trying to find some maps placed under 

 some rocks during the ascent, lost his way in the blinding rain 

 and snow, and could not be found, while his other companions 

 (three) were so knocked up as to be a serious hindrance instead 

 of a help to him. Evidently Ncuma\'er was a man of great 

 courage and ability, combined with physical strength and 

 resource, as pages 77 to 79 of his narrative testify. The details 

 of his experiences at Kosciusko cannot be told in a few words 

 without losing in the telling, so must be omitted.! He got his 

 party (with the exception of the man Edward) safely back to 

 Groggan's Station, on the Indi, and then made for Omeo, which 

 he reached on the 25th November. Thence to Cobungrah and 

 Mount Hotham. He named a peak in the main divide between 

 the Victoria (a tributary of the Mitta) and the Dargo rivers 

 Mount Wills, after the unfortunate explorer, but the name has 

 not been retained on our maps, the present Mount Wills being 

 north-east of Hotham, and, I believe, named after a police 

 magistrate of the district. In my paper before referred to 

 (page 185) I contended that the present Mount Hotham was 

 not the Hotham of Baron von Mueller. This is confirmed by 

 the following passage on page 82 of Neumayer's narrative. 

 He says : — " At noon we crossed the Brandy Creek, and at 

 2 p.m. a bald hill, from which we could see the Buffalo Ranges 

 in the distance, to the right Mount Hotham, and to the left 

 the highest range of Gippsland, and also Mount Buller. This 

 bald hill I called ' Stormy Point ' (6,106 feet), as I had been 

 told it was hardly possible to cross it without being assailed by 

 a gale of wind." This description fits exactly the present Mount 

 Hotham, often called " Baldy," officially recorded as 6,100 feet 

 above sea-level, while his Hotham would be the present 

 Feathertop, alxmt eight miles to the right as he approached 

 from Omeo. Camped at head of Little River (Kicwa ?). Next 

 day proceeded along the Razorback to Mount Hotham, and 



* As the result of numerous surveys, the heiglit of the liigliest i)oi tion 

 of Kosciusko is now given as 7,328 feet. 



I Those to wliom Neumayer's report is inaccessible will lind two inte- 

 resting accounts of visits to Kosciusko, with a map of the district, by Mr. 

 A. E. Kitson, F.G.S. , who also had his trials, in the Victorian Naturalist 

 for October and November, 1905, vol. xxii., i)p. 89 and 107. 



