— Looking Backwards. — 



When we reached the top of the first ridge we turned and looked: 

 back. A fine view met our eyes, for we were at a fair elevation, 

 and stretching away at our feet, bathed in the bright morning 

 sunlight, were miles upon miles of mallee and broom country, 

 bounded by that fine range of hills. Marble Range, with the bold 

 pile of rocks called North Block, like a sentinel, at the northern 

 end of the range, but distinctly detached from it. These huge 

 rocks, shrouded in a purple mist, ran almost perpendicularly from 

 the dark mallee-covered plain. The latter was broken in a feAV 

 places by small patches of chocolate-coloured soil in fallow, or 

 nuiybe a light green patch of corn, with a galvanized-iron hut 

 glistening in the sun, indicating where that plucky and hard-work- 

 ing individual, the mallee farmer, has set himself to carve out a 

 t iture by determination and he-nps of hard work. A spot or thread 

 of silvery light shining in the sun like molten silver, shows the 

 position of a swamp or claypan, filled to overflowing during the 

 past bounteous season. 



— In the Ranges. — 



Turning our backs on this evt r-dianging scene (it will not bo 

 long befox'e this vast plain Avill be all under the plough), we de- 

 scended into the valley beyond, to rise again on the other side to 

 the top of No. 2 ridge, and so on till we had put many miles 

 between us and the plain. The flora had changed considerably, 

 and timber Avas larger. Great masses of scarlet-flowering bottle 

 brush grew in the valleys, and a tree or two of banksia, as well 

 an sheoak were to be met with. Strange to say, however, the 

 birds had changed little, for Ave observed the greybreasted robin, 

 rufus-vented shrike thrush, the scrub wrens, black magpies, and 

 many others, all of which Ave had found on the plains. Having 

 persuaded the old horse to drag the dray so far along a wild and 

 rugged mountain ti-ack Ave called a halt in a wooded valley, and 

 liberated him from his harness for a Avhile. Cameras, satchels, 

 and other Impedimenta were soon hauled out of the dray, and the 

 party Avas SAvalloAved up by the bush, all in search of objects in his 

 or her special line of study. All assembled at the appointed hour, 

 full of Avhat they had or had not seen. The billycan (the in- 

 dispensable of bush fife) Avas boiling. Tea made and a ration issued 

 all seemed anxious to take the edge off those appetites so well 

 sharpened by the healthful atmosphere of the Australian bush and 

 a good long tramp. After a brief rest Ave again rambled off for 

 a little AA'hile. Soon the return journey had to be made, the track 

 in the ranges being a nasty one. and almost impossible to follow 

 in the dark. 



