170 'f'HE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



They are, so Mr. Kramer informs me, very delicate, especially 

 the girls, who, from some sad cause, die when they are about 

 two years of age. The boys are, as a rule, more robust, although 

 the past winter has carried off many of the old people. 



Mr. Kramer is one of the pious and hard-working Moravian 

 missionaries, and, from what I could see, spared neither time 

 nor trouble upon his little flock. He is to them the true type of 

 the "Village Schoolmaster" of Goldsmith. 



I stayed here with my kind friends for two days, and, having 

 in the meanwhile made some few arrangements with the natives 

 for collecting zoological specimens, I left at 9 a.m. for Albacutya 

 Station, having secured a seat in the mailman's buggy. 



The road to the station, the residence of Mr. Arthur Scott,, 

 having so recently been described in such a pleasant manner by 

 Mr. D. Le Souef, I shall but briefly touch upon the subject. 



Shortly after starting our road lay through box flats, and then 

 between dense mallee, the smaller species of gum (Eucalyptus 

 uncinata) being, so far as I could see, the commonest kind, the 

 variety of E. crassifolia (commonly known as E. dumosa) being 

 also very plentiful. We saw several waggons loading the leaves 

 of these mallee gums for the Eucalyptus Oil Factory, at Antwerp, 

 which, by the way, we had just passed. 



The common, though very pretty, "Virgin's Bower" 

 (Clematis microphylla) was just out of flower, it having in some 

 places completely covered the mallee, whilst the beautiful aster 

 (A. pimelioides ) was in full bloom, and could be seen nearl}^ a 

 mile away. 



Small flowers, with the exception of Bfenkea Australis (which 

 covered the ground for miles with its pretty Alyssum-like 

 flowers), Toxa7ithus Muelleri, and perpusilhis, were very poorly 

 represented. 



I had almost forgotten to mention the very terrible storm 

 which came on whilst I was at the Mission Station, and from 

 the effects of which houses in Dimboola were partly unroofed, 

 and along the track huge pines, bull oaks, and gums lay 

 scattered on the ground in all directions, many having been 

 completely uprooted. 



After a pleasant, though somewhat cold drive, we came in 

 sight of Lake Hindmarsh Station, where we had to make a 

 detour to "Tullyrea," the former residence of Mr. Scott, and 

 here the Wimmera had to be crossed in a boat, the Tullyrea 

 homestead being beautifully situated on an eminence on a steep 

 bank of the river. 



The tree-tobacco (Nicotiana glauca) grows here in great 

 luxuriance, some of the plants being nearly thirty feet high, it 

 being an introduction, and I was, on the whole, much impressed 

 with the great number of introduced weeds which I had seen on 

 the way up from Dimboola. 



