524 rROCEEDTNGS OF SECTION E. 



Along the floors of these valleys small creeks, rivulets, and burns 

 find their way, in all but two or three instances, to a central moor 

 valley to form the source of the Nile, which rises in a lake near the 

 eastern escarpment, and finally passes down the deep gorge alluded 

 to on the western edge of the range. In the valley leading out to this 

 gorge are situated the tarns, or lakelets, known as Youl's Lakes. The 

 upper lake, for which no fixed name has hitherto existed, and in which 

 the Nile rises, is named by the writer Lake Baker, after the discoverer 

 of the source of the Great Nile. 



A detailed description of the crags, isolated precipices, bluffs, and 

 walls composing the perimeter of the mountain is given by the author. 

 The valleys spoken of above, and the moor-belts and tors are described 

 in the portion of the paper devoted to the " Topographical Features 

 of the Plateau," in which also the water system, the sources, and 

 courses of all the creeks and burns, and a description of the tarns and 

 lakes are entered into. 



The Climatology is next deal with, showing the influence the lofty 

 plateau, with the chain of outlying mountains to the north of it, has 

 on the rainfall over the area of country between Ben Lomond and the 

 Pacific littoral. The writer alludes to the varying rainfall on the 

 plateau itself, the fall of snow in comparison with that on the colder 

 ranges in Southern Tasmania, the striking cloud effects, as seen from 

 the lowlands on the eastern side of the mountain, and finally the tem- 

 perature, as registered by thermometer located during a period of two 

 years on the plateau at an elevation of 4,470ft. above sea level. The 

 minimum registered in this period is 10° Fah., and the maximum 

 93° Fah. ; the latter reading probably referring to a day in January, 

 1906, with a hot wind from the north. In the winter of 1907, which 

 was characterised by heavy falls of snow and unusually cold south- 

 west winds, the minimum was only 14-5 Fah. This was perhaps due 

 to the box (3) containing the thermometer being protected by the 

 surroundinsf snow. 



(Succeeding this section of the paper is one on the " Flora of the 

 Plateau," in which the writer exhaustively deals with the interesting 

 alpine vegetation, clothing nearly all portions — vale and moor — of 

 the upland, which has an area of about 17,000 acres. Few low-country 

 plant forms exist, except on the slopes of one valley, where the spores 

 of Eucalyptus viminalit have evidently been carried up by westerly 

 winds from the gorge, through which the Nile descends, to the tiers 

 below the escarpment. The dominant shrubs are four species of 

 Bichea, or "honey plants," two of Orites '.'yellow bush," two of Olearia, 

 one Ozothamnus, the pretty Bellendena moniana, and the mountain 

 ti-tree. The mountain currant, Coprosma nitida, has a more stunted 

 and thorny habit in its struggle for existence in this wind-swept 

 region than on the uplands of the lake-plateau in Central Tasmania. 

 It persists to the topmost peaks of the northern division, an example 

 of it forming the sole representative of the plateau flora on the summit 

 of Lesee's Peak. 



(3) I'his is 4ft. 6in. from the ground, but on a ledge — a basaltic outcrop. 



