THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 13 



cockatoos are all around, and as evening comes on we hear the 

 mo-poke, and above the camp the half-whistling, half-grating 

 sound made by a flying longicorn beetle. The sound seems to 

 come from all around, and there is no wonder that the blacks 

 regarded it as something uncanny. 



Sunday, 6th January. — We spend the day searching in the 

 gully along the river banks and on the hillsides around, but find 

 nothing of any special interest, there being a somewhat remark- 

 able dearth of animal life, and, save the waratah, nothing of 

 special interest botanically. One waratah we find which attains 

 a height of 50 feet. 



Monday, yxH January. — Leaving camp we mount a ridge, 

 and very shortly descend again and cross another of the heads of 

 the Cabbage Tree Creek, beyond which a stretch of undulating 

 country, with no features of any special interest, watered by the 

 M'Kenzie and its tributary streams. The M'Kenzie rises in 

 Tanglefoot, and flows south to join the Bemm River near its 

 mouth. „ In its course alluvial gold has not very long ago been 

 found, and we come across a party of prospectors searching the 

 country. The track leads through a gully beside the stream, in 

 which Tristania laurina grows to a great size, and amongst 

 other ferns we note the presence of Hymenophylliim tunbridgiense. 

 In the gully, also, we see the satin bower-bird. By the side of 

 the M'Kenzie is a small bark hut, on one of the i^"^ level pieces 

 of country which we have come across. East of the stream we 

 pass the prospectors' camp, and, mounting on to a ridge, halt for 

 lunch, after two or three miles' walk through forest, part of which 

 has recently been burnt. The country is fairly good. The trees 

 are principally stringybark, with at times blue and white gums 

 and messmate. There is a great sameness in all the country in 

 this part : first a ridge covered with the .usual scrub of young 

 gums and native cherries. Acacias, Persoonias, and various Asters ;, 

 Goodia in fruit, Comesperma in flower everywhere, with Good- 

 enias, Dilwynnias, Lobelias, Scsevola, Wahlenbergia, Helichrysum, 

 and Dipodium. Acre after acre of ground is covered with the 

 beautiful coral and star ferns, of which one never grows tired, or 

 with Pteris aquilina and incisa and Davallia dubia. After the 

 ridge comes a creek with a dense growth of gully vegetation, and 

 on the rich soil large white-gums growing, then another ridge and 

 another creek, and so on mile after mile. 



In the afternoon we walk along a high ridge (1,700 ft.) which, 

 bears away to the north-east, and then turning more north we 

 hear the sound, and can just catch sight of the waters of the Arte 

 River, falling down over rocks from the hillside. The track keeps 

 by the side of the Arte for some distance as it runs north to join 

 the Goolengook, but before reaching this we camp for the night, 

 by the side of the former. There is no good camping ground j. 



