^j^P'^'l AuDAS, Through the Murra Murra Country. 59 



THROUGH THE MURRA MURRA COUNTRY (WESTERN 

 GRAMPIANS).* 



By J. W. AuDAS, F.L.S., F.R.M.S., National Herbarium, 

 Melbourne. 



{Read before the Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria, 8th March, 1920.) 



During the past nine years my friend, Mr. C. W. D' Alton, and 

 myself have at various intervals spent many happy weeks 

 together exploring the Victorian Grampians, examining known 

 localities and discovering unexamined ones, until no portion 

 of that immense region remained to be investigated but the 

 isolated and rarely traversed part which has been retained as 

 a timber reserve by the Victorian Government, and is known 

 as the Murra Murra State Forest. We had long dreamed and 

 planned this trip, which would necessitate the use of mountain 

 ponies, sturdy and sure-footed, camping outfit, and much 

 strenuous cUmbing on our own part. In October last these 

 hopes were realized. We were fortunate in securing horses 

 that could be relied upon for the work, and we left " Kia-Ora," 

 Mr. D'Alton's residence at Hall's Gap, early on the morning of 

 Saturday, nth October, and started along the jinker track 

 up the Stony Creek valley. 



As the sun rose, terraced ridges of distant hills showed dimly 

 through a purple haze. The clear early morning air on the 

 mountains was exhilarating, and the scent of the eucalypts 

 (so strong before the dew has lifted) was delightful. For about 

 two miles we had easy travelling, but when we turned on to 

 the bridle path to the Victoria Valley the ascent became very 

 steep — so much so, indeed, that we were frequently forced to 

 dismount and lead our horses over some of the roughest 

 pinclies. The scenery now was magnificent. The track we 

 were following has been cut on the side of that appropriately- 

 named peak Mount Difficult, which towered in its rugged 

 grandeur above us, and in the dizzy distance of valleys 

 imndreds of feet below Stony Creek wound like a silver ribbon. 

 Beyond showed the western slopes of Mackey's Peak, rising a 

 thousand feet or more. Its great side consists almost entirely 

 of one huge sheet of rough scarified rock, and looks like the 

 hide of some huge animal stretcliod out to dry, and on this 

 account is called by many people " Tlie IClepliant's Skin." 



After passing the beautiful Venus Batli and tlu> Splitters' 

 h'all, we struck the bridle track which leads over a saddle in 

 tlie range between Mounts Rosea and Difficult. l<"rom this 



* Previous papers by Mr. Aiulas arc : — " One of Nature's Wonderlands — 

 the Victorian Grampians," ]'ict. Nat., February, 1913 (xxix., p. 146); 

 "The Grampians Revisited," \'icf. \'at., June, 1914 (xxxi., p. 24); 

 " Nature in tlic Serra Range," Vict. Nat., April, 1919 (xxxv., p. 171). 



