THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 177 



some eight or ten miles. About three or four miles from 

 Dimboola there is a very singular forest of dwarf stringy- bark 

 (Eucalyptus largiflorensj. The country is mostly sandy, fear- 

 fully dry, and in many places is covered with low banksia scrubs 

 some of the thickets being so dense that it is no easy matter to 

 push ahead through them. We drove from the forest towards 

 the Wimmera, when we rested the horses and lunched. I was 

 surprised to find so little on the banks of the river, which, I was 

 informed, had only recently been running very rapidly, and was 

 a banker ; so, doubtless, the smaller plants were covered up 

 with mud. There were no signs of aquatic plants in the river, 

 although I looked for them very carefully. Near the river was a 

 fine patch of Drosera glaiiduligera, a charming scarlet flower sp., 

 which grows also at Brighton, etc. After a rest — the day being 

 very hot — we harnessed up the horses, and steered away towards 

 the outer skirts of Stringybark Forest, where I found the beauti- 

 ful Zieria verojiicea, a pink flower sp., with a peculiar scent, and 

 well worthy of cultivation. This sp., I found, invariably grew in 

 the tussocks of the spinifex, so that it had to be collected under 

 difficulties. Styphelia sonderi and Eriosteinon sediflorns, the 

 latter a charming yellow-flowered sp., grew here in great pro- 

 fusion. The tall spikes of Epacris impressa, I noticed, attained a 

 height of over six feet, and the flower is much stouter and of 

 more substance than the common Brighton form. The country 

 about here is a very dangerous one to drive or ride through, it 

 being thickly covered with rabbit-burrows, and more than once 

 the horses were nearly down. 



It was now getting late, so we had to make tracks for Dim- 

 boola, and in passing through a most dismal-looking part of the 

 forest, we were surprised to hear the sound of an axe. On 

 getting out of the buggy and going towards where I heard the 

 sound, a most hideous-looking old Chinaman emerged from behind 

 a bush, he being on a bark marauding expedition, and, evidently 

 mistaking me for a myrmidon of the law, he quickly mformed me 

 that he was " welly poor," although we afterwards came across 

 his horse and cart — quite a respectable turn-out — and these 

 were hidden in some thick scrub, it being against the law to strip 

 the trees of their bark. I afterwards found out that this ' welly 

 poor" and " unwashed " gentleman had had considerable 

 experience in the bark-stealing line. 



The farms in the Dimboola district looked really well, they 

 having had, so I was informed, a most favourable season ; but 

 when the heat sets in I fear that the lives of these farmers is not 

 of the most pleasant kind. 



I left Dimboola by the train, which leaves at midnight, and 

 reached Melbourne at a quarter to ten o'clock on the following 

 morning, having been away exactly three weeks. 



