J""^/] Excursion to Mont Albert and Balwyn. 35 



EXCURSION TO MONT ALBERT AND BALWYN. 



The lowering clouds and subsequent downpour of rain on 

 Saturday morning, 26th April, appeared anything but encourag- 

 ing for the proposed excursion of the afternoon. As it happened, 

 however, the weather later on was so propitious that a more 

 favourable time for geographic study and a general ramble 

 could hardly have been selected. From the heights of Mont 

 Albert, whence the party of fifteen members and friends started, 

 the Dandenong Ranges were seen in their most fascinating garb, 

 the dark mantle of forest trees being here and there relieved by 

 rolling masses of white and grey cloud, whilst over all extended 

 a veritable '' photographer's sky." The clearness of the middle 

 distance and beyond, owing to the refractive condition of the 

 air, enabled the party to pick out the principal heights in the 

 panoramic view of the northern and eastern hills and mountain 

 ranges, and the plains of river denudation, with their outstand- 

 ing monadnocks, were seen from beyond Heidelberg to Ringwood 

 and Mitcham. 



After examining the relation of the overlying sandy cover of 

 the Kalimnan beds to the Silurian bed-rock, the party turned 

 northwood from the reservoir hill, down Elgar-road, in the 

 direction of the Koonung Koonung Creek basin, where the chief 

 objective lay — namely, the volcanic plug in Silurian rock, near 

 Whitethorn-road. On the way down, the low, swampy valleys 

 lying at the foot of the sand-caps of the high-lands were noticed. 

 These valleys are local, temporary base levels of stream erosion, 

 and it was observed that no sooner had the bed-rock been incised 

 than well-developed creek formation ensued. The same pheno- 

 menon obtains in the Cheltenham and neighbouring districts, as 

 pointed out recently by Mr. T. S. Hart, M.A. An interesting 

 fact in connection with these swamp valleys is the prevalence, 

 on the better-drained parts, of a flora which originally lived on 

 the sandy area of the higher ground, and which still shows a 

 lingering vitality, on temporary sufferance, in the semi- 

 arenaceous lands at the foot of the sand-caps. As evidence we 

 note the tolerable abundance of the sand-loving Manuka, 

 Leptospermiim scoparium, on the Silurian slopes of the Kenmare 

 Heights, off the Union-road, and at the foot of Balwyn Hill. 



The steep descent from the Reservoir Hill down the slopes 

 of the Koonung Koonung Creek valley was remarkable, and on 

 consulting the contour map we found the fall to be 275 feet 

 from the sand-covered hill at Mont Albert to the creek in 

 Elgar-road, a distance of only two miles. Turning west along 

 Belmore-road where we picked up another member of our party, 

 a walk of a mile or so, partly across paddocks, brought us to 

 the interesting excavation in lava lately described by Mr. A. O. 

 Thiele and myself in the " Proceedings of the Royal Society 



