12 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



or seven miles with little interruption. Over the top of the spur 

 it passes into a gneissic formation, succeeding this is a band of 

 quartzite, then granite again, and descending the hill on the 

 opposite side silurian sandstones again appear near the base, 

 and the same formation then continues for some long distance 

 northward. 



As we mount the ridge the track turns northward, and at a 

 height of 1,200 feet we see the first blue-gum amongst a forest 

 composed principally of stringybarks and ironbarks and white- 

 gums. Here and elsewhere we notice that when the blue-gum 

 appears the ironbark disappears. This is of interest, because in 

 such parts of Victoria as Neerim the blue-gum and ironbark (E. 

 sieheriana) are always found together. The blue-gums are frequent 

 on to the top of the ridge, where at the highest point the aneroid 

 registers 1,800 feet. In his recent paper Mr. Stirling has 

 curiously not noticed the presence of the blue-gum, though it is 

 to be found in plenty in several parts of Western Croajingolong. 



Close to the highest point Whitelaw's track passes off to the 

 north along the M'Culloch Range, leading by the side of Mounts 

 Lookout, Tanglefoot, and Jack to the Miners' track. Bruce's track 

 now leads eastward, and from the side of the high ridge on which 

 we are travelling a very fine view is obtained. The hill runs 

 down steeply into a deep gorge beneath us. To the south lies 

 the undulating, densely-wooded country drained by the Cabbage 

 Tree Creek and Yeerung River, and away in the dim distance we 

 can just see the level line of the sea. The track turns more to 

 the south, and, after a walk of about 16 miles, we descend a steep 

 hillside, and find ourselves in an old surveyor's camp, in a lovely 

 spot, just where one of the heads of the Cabbage Tree Creek 

 takes a bend, and where, on the inner side of the curve, is a 

 small piece of comparatively flat land (4). 



The hills around are high and covered with forest and thick 

 scrub. The river, which contains beautiful blackfish, is shut in 

 with fern trees, Lilypilli, Elceocarpus, Pittosporum bicolor, and the 

 usual creepers, and just before our tents, rising directly from the 

 water's edge, is a beautiful waratah plant some 30 feet high. The 

 Victorian waratah was first described by the Baron von Mueller 

 from Croajingolong in i860. He discovered the plant growing 

 along the valley of the Genoa River in Eastern Croajingolong, 

 though there the plant does not attain the great size (from 20 

 ft. to 50 ft.) which it does in the western district. Baron von 

 Mueller named it Telopea oj-eades, regarding it as a new species, in 

 which Bentham agrees with him. Sir Joseph Hooker, however, 

 regards it as a variety of the Tasmanian T. truncata, with downy 

 stem. It is worth noting that though we saw hundreds of speci- 

 mens during our journey not one of the very many examined bore 

 this character. Jays and white and black and Gang Gang 



