MAJOR MITCHELL'S "AUSTRALIA FELIX" 91 



night was a miserable one, for although they succeeded in kindling 

 a small fire of twigs, so intense was the cold that the sticks had 

 icicles on the one end while the other was frizzling in the fire. 

 At six o'clock next morning the clouds rolled off the mountain top, 

 and the Major mounted the frozen rook. But though temporarily 

 clear on the summit, everything below was blended in one dull 

 grey, and as the sun rose amidst red and stormy clouds, the white 

 mist rolled over the plains, and hid all but occasional isolated hill- 

 tops. Through the rifts he had momentary glimpses of a level 

 open country stretching away southward toward the sea ; which 

 gave him confidence in being able to continue his journey without 

 any serious impediment. But the clouds began to encompass them 

 again, and the bitter wind drove them from the summit without 

 completing the technical survey. The descent, a matter of some 

 danger from the rocks being encrusted with ice, was made in three 

 hours, and at the camp where they had left the horses they thawed 

 themselves before a huge fire, while they ravenously made up for 

 their eighteen hours' fast. Mitchell was greatly impressed with 

 the wild grandeur of this mountain chain, and in his narrative 

 discourses at some length the principle upon which names should 

 be given to great natural features by discoverers. He could not 

 learn the native name, and having called the peak he had ascended 

 after his sovereign, he did not feel that he could give the name 

 of any individual to the whole range, so he christened them the 

 Grampians. 



The general character of the country on the eastern side of the 

 range was so soft and marshy, and so intersected with innumerable 

 creeks that the progress of a party with so much ponderous travel- 

 ling gear was difficult and tediously slow. On rejoining his camp, 

 therefore, Mitchell resolved to keep to the north of the Grampians, 

 and to work down towards the coast on their western slope, rather 

 than risk the possibility of his progress being checked by the ap- 

 parently formidable barrier of the Pyrenees. On the 17th of July the 

 camp on the Eichardson was left, and they struck due west, and on 

 the third day were on the plains eight miles to the north of Mount 

 Zero, which the leader ascended for surveying purposes. There 

 had been some difficulty in getting all their impedimenta over the 



