166 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



the deep blue fruits of Dianella tasmanica, with the bright blue 

 flowers of Lobelia simplicicaulis, added colour to the scene. The 

 butterflies Heteronynipha merope, Xenica achanta, and T. klugii 

 were plentiful on the hillside. The Nimmo Falls were now in 

 front of us, and marked the change from the Silurian to the 

 Granitic formation. Crossing the creek above these some fine 

 bushes of Leptosper^num lanigerum afforded a collecting patch 

 for the entomologists, but yielded only a few skipper butterflies, 

 Hesperilla donnysa and H. compacta. Ascending the opposite 

 hill for some distance through a mass of Senecio dryadeus, &c., 

 we had a fine view of the plateau at the back of Mt. Disappoint- 

 ment, which forms the watershed of Wallaby Creek, and towards 

 the east could make out range after range of hills till they were 

 lost in the distance, perhaps as far away as Mansfield. The 

 botanists now retraced their steps to investigate the surroundings 

 of a spring for minute plants and specimens of pond-life, and here 

 made a couple of captures, which will be referred to later on, and 

 were probably the most interesting of the trip. The entomolo- 

 gists went further up the creek, but with the only result of having 

 some hard work to do to get round or over the fallen trees. The 

 hillsides here must at one time have been magnificent forests, but 

 now contain nothing but gaunt skeletons hundreds of feet high, 

 standing up against the skyline waiting for another fire or a winter 

 storm to lay them low. Rejoining our pond-life member, a 

 number of samples were bottled for future investigation, and we 

 returned homewards for luncheon. 



In the afternoon our botanist was occupied pressing his speci- 

 mens, and the contents of the bottles were submitted to the 

 searching eye of the microscopist. Three of the party started off 

 to try the hills on the other side of Wallaby Creek, but beyond 

 seeing a few parrots, Platycercus elegans, life was absent, and 

 flowering plants, beyond those already mentioned, were also 

 scarce. After traversing some distance without many results 

 they determined to strike out for the Silver Creek weir, which 

 was reached rather late in the afternoon. Here a fine blackwood 

 tree afforded ample shade for a welcome rest before starting on 

 the return journey. There are two or three other minor weirs 

 here, but we did not visit them, owing to the lateness of the hour. 

 How the Silver Creek obtained its name I do not know, but 

 near the weir, where there had been a slight washaway, the 

 roadway was so covered with minute particles of mica that it 

 had quite the appearance of having been dusted with bronze 

 powder. We decided to return by the aqueduct, a distance of 

 about 8^ miles, and were amply repaid for the extra mileage by 

 the views of the deep and precipitous valleys round the heads of 

 which the aqueduct is carried. 



Looking down into these valleys one could not help thinking 



