40 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST, 



We followed up the creek, most of the time up to our waists 

 in water, and on the evening of the second day we came upon 

 a very pretty waterfall about 120 feet high. We camped there 

 that night and were very uncomfortable owing to the very heavy 

 rain. Next morning brought no change in the weather, but 

 we determined to push on, and on proceeding about half a 

 mile further we came to another magnificent fall of water, 

 which, at the lowest computation, must be 270 feet. This fall 

 I named " French's Fall," in honour of my cousin Mr. Charles 

 French, F.L.S., one of the founders of the F. N. C. of Victoria, 

 and an enthusiast in all branches of natural history. It was 

 here that we first saw signs of blacks during our journey, having 

 come upon a fire which had but recently been extinguished, as 

 the embers were both wet and warm. We saw several camps 

 afterwards but they were tenantless. This caused us to keep a 

 sharp look-out, and leaving the creek we took to a likely-looking 

 spur, the approach to which was a climb of nearly 200 feet, and 

 we had to hang on tooth and nail. Here our scrub knives came 

 into requisition, and were in constant use for the remainder of 

 the journey. The rain continued steadily and we passed 

 another uncomfortable night, but, as we were tired and weary, the 

 heavy downpour did not prevent us from sleeping some portion 

 of the night. Morning saw us on our way again, and by noon 

 we had cut about three miles of track and judged our altitude 

 to be about 2000 feet. We tried to determine our position by 

 climbing trees but could discern nothing either above or below 

 us, the mist which hung around obscuring everything at a 

 distance of 50 or 60 yards. At night time of the fourth day 

 three and ;i half miles of track had been cut, and weary and 

 tired we laid down to rest. This night, like the last, was a 

 soaker, and the leeches caused us much annoyance by getting 

 in our eyes and up our nostrils. In the morning we held a 

 consultation and decided : — First, that as the weather showed 

 no signs of clearing our object must, for the present, be 

 regarded as defeated. Secondly, that if we did not immediately 

 descend one of us would have to carry the other down, as 

 symptoms, arising from an accident of a painful nature began 

 to develop in my companion. We retraced our steps home- 

 wards, and after a weary march, camping anywhere we could 

 obtain shelter at night, sometimes under shelving rocks or in 

 the humpys of the blacks (the blacks, of course, being away), 

 we reached our starting point on the evening of the sixth day, 

 with nothing gained but the poor satisfaction of knowing that 

 we were the first two whites who had attained that elevation on 

 Mount Bellenden-Ker. 



Some time after our unsuccessful attempt to ascend Mount 

 Bellenden-Ker my plucky companion left me, and I was 

 joined by a young tourist friend from England (Mr. 

 Alexander Davidson). I was about starting on a tour to the 



