The Gorgeous Gully 



I KXOW a gully which would set a miser's heart a T 

 ^ beating, for from end to end it is lined with purest gold. 

 Weeks ago the warm weather drove the wattles from our 

 bush, but " yellow-haired September " has brought in their 

 place a blaze of gold, before which the wattle pales into 

 insignificance the gold of a million million pea-flowers. 



The gully is long and steep, and the sides go up and up 

 by rocky ways; but the roughness is hidden beneath that 

 gleaming carpet, and the steep slopes only serve the better 

 to display its gorgeousness. Wherever you stand you look 

 up or down upon this yellow bed of blossom. The graceful 

 flower stems of the tall dillwynia floribunda wave towards 

 the stiff regal heads of the pultenea stipularis, till all are 

 mixed and mingled in a riotous confusion. Through the 

 sprawling branches of the scribbly gums the sunbeams come 

 dancing down, and are caught in the growing sunshine of 

 the flowers. Sometimes a big grey rock tries to frown upon 

 the scene, but the gay blossoms wave their arms before him 

 and hide his roughness. The bees do not frown, for they 

 love the honey-laden blossoms, and the air is heavy with 

 their drone. The spinebills love them, too, and dart hither 

 and thither, as if unable to choose where all is so desirable. 

 The little stream that goes singing down the valley bed 



