226 VICTORIA. NEW SOUTH WALES. 



when fallen, was found by Baron Miillcr to be 478 feet in 

 length.* 



We travelled about 50 or 60 miles l)y coach. The coaches 

 are very like Californian coaches, and are rough but very strong, 

 the bodies being slung by thick leather straps to wheels as 

 stout as cart wheels. The road is scarcely anywhere better 

 than is an English green lane in a clay soil district. In wet 

 weather deep ruts are cut in it ; then these are baked dry and 

 hard, and at the next shower form watercourses and get scooped 

 out deeper than ever. The road at last comes to consist of a 

 series of sharp ridges separated by intervening troughs, often 

 two feet deep. The consequence is that as the coach rattles 

 and leaps bumping over these, the suspended body of the 

 coach heaves and sways, and this to such an extent that my 

 companion and a lady in the coach were sea-sick all the way. 



We travelled over some of the roughest of the road at night, 

 which, of course, made matters worse, since the "driver" could 

 not see the pitfalls ; but, like a Californian " stage-driver," he 

 well knew all the dangerous ones, even in the dark, and in one 

 or two places made detours through the bush for a little way. 



The ranges are covered with a dense forest of gum-trees, in 

 many places of enormous height, standing with their smooth 

 trunks close together, and running up often for a height of 200 

 feet without giving off a branch. The light-coloured stems are 

 hung with ragged strips of separated bark. 



The great slenderness of the trunks of these giant gum-trees 

 in proportion to their height is striking, and in this respect 

 they contrast most favourably with the Californian " big trees," 

 which, in the shape of their trunks, remind one of a carrot 

 upside down, so disproportionately broad are they at their 

 bases. The large species of gum-tree, the tallest tree in the 

 world, is Eucalyptus mnygdalina. As Baron von Miiller says, 

 " the largest specimens might overshadow the pyramid of 

 Cheops." 



Beneath, in the gullies, is a thick growth of tree-ferns and 

 underwood on the banks of a mountain stream. The under- 

 growth is the haunt of Bush Wallabies {Halinaturus ualabatus). 

 I put one of them suddenly to flight as I was creeping through 



* The highest estimate ever made of the height of a Sequoia gigantea 

 is that of Bigelow, who put the height of one at from 420 to 470 feet. 

 Bigelow, in "Whipple's Expedition," p. 23 (Pacific Railroad Explora- 

 tions) ; cit. by Grisebach, " Veg. der Erde." 



Sir Joseph Hooker, in a lecture delivered at the Royal Institution of 

 Great Britain, April 12th, 1S7S, and published in separate form, p. 12, 

 cites Prof. Whitney's careful measurements of the heights of Californian 

 Big Trees as the best available estimate up to date. Average height 

 275 feet ; maximum height a little over 320 feet. 



