DERIVATION OF NAME OF MURRAY 57 



the bare rocks. Pretty mosses grow among the rocks, one 

 of a bright flame colour being particularly conspicuous. 

 Insects, among them moths and butterflies, are found 

 beyond the forest limit, and the lyre-bird, like the diamond- 

 snake, is found as high up as that limit. Owing to the dense 

 nature of the forest and brush it is more often heard than 

 seen ; and it is singular that a bird which, here at any 

 rate, cannot have been much persecuted, should be so shy : 

 for notwithstanding all my precautions I found but few 

 opportunities of watching its movements on Kosciusko. 



The top of the mountain, for the upper two thousand feet, 

 is bare rock. A few minute mosses and lichens excepted, 

 there is no vegetation ; and the ground is usually covered 

 with snow. This, however, in summer-time, often entirely 

 disappears. The cold at this elevation, although sufficient 

 to destroy vegetable life, does not seem to be very great. 

 The blackfellow who accompanied me complained a little 

 of it ; but I did not even feel the need of extra clothing. 



The top of the mountain is a plateau, and on the north 

 and north-west the sides form perpendicular walls, down one 

 of which I lowered a stone tied to a sounding line a distance 

 of 1768 feet before it found a lodgment. Below is a forest, 

 on the top of which the eye rests as on the billowy foliage 

 of the enclosed valleys in the Blue Mountains. But here 

 there are no cascades tumbling over the precipice. In the 

 tremendous chasm there are several rushing torrents 

 which form the head-waters of the river Hume. This 

 river further down to the westward becomes the Murray, 

 the second great river of Australia ; which, it is generally 

 assumed, is named after a Scotch official bearing this 

 time-honoured name. But it seems more probable that it 

 is an abbreviation of the native exclamation " murrey ! 

 murrey ! " meaning great astonishment or surprise, or 

 something very remarkable ; a term they certainly used on 

 first viewing this and other great rivers of the continent. 

 There does not seem to be any official record of the river 

 having been named after Sir John Murray, who was a 

 former Colonial secretary. Rightly or wrongly the 

 Murray is now the Murray^ is so spelt in documents and 



