CHAPTER VI 



MOUNT KOSCIUSKO AND THE AUSTRALIAN ALPS 



THE Australian Alps cannot enter into competition with 

 the European giants whose name they have borrowed, but 

 they are possessed of a beauty which is all their own, 

 and cannot be eclipsed by the more exalted ranges. 

 Mount Kosciusko, the highest mountain on the Australian 

 continent, is only some seven thousand feet above sea-level ; 

 but for abruptness and wild grandeur of scenery, not even 

 Mont Blanc can excel it. Though only seven thousand feet 

 in total height, it has a precipitous face which is over two 

 thousand feet high. 



The ascent of Kosciusko is a trying one. The ground 

 is exceedingly rough, much encumbered with fallen timber, 

 and full of deep rocky gullies which must be climbed 

 through, or avoided by detours which are too laborious to 

 be undertaken by any ordinary mountaineers. Indeed 

 both time and labour are saved by climbing the gullies. 

 It is a climb, for these gullies are so precipitous that they 

 first have to be descended into as into a pit and then 

 climbed out of on the opposite side at eminent risk of neck 

 and limb. They are all too wide to be bridged, and yet 

 are so narrow and deep as to be often grave-like in 

 appearance. There is always a dense growth of bush in 

 the bottom of them, and on the sides wherever the shrubs 

 can find a root-hold, while above there is a forest of huge 

 trees thickly laced with creepers and underwood — quite 

 different from an ordinary Australian forest. Masses of 

 rock, exceedingly rough and jagged, litter the gullies and 

 sides of the mountain, and block the way so effectually 

 that, without the assistance of a guide who knows the 



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