THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST, 23 



means comfortable (lo). There is no chance of getting away from 

 the ants, as "bull-dogs" and "jumpers" abound everywhere, 

 and it is not cheerful to find three or four "bull-dogs" promenading 

 your rug as you go to lie down, or to wake up feeling something 

 alive and prickly, and to find you have a scorpion for a bed- 

 fellow. Such are our experiences this evening, and we leave the 

 camp in the morning without very much regret. 



Sunday, 13TH January. — We take the road east to Bonang. 

 Leaving the Delegate, the country improves. The gums, white 

 and stringybark, increase in size ; waratahs appear, growing 

 near to a creek known, from the fact of its having been success-- 

 fully worked for gold by Chinamen, as Chinaman's Creek. The 

 road rises considerably, until the aneroid indicates 3,400 ft. We 

 are on the side of a hill sloping away so steeply to the north that 

 the road has had to be banked up, and, going round sharp bends, 

 is protected by rails. Where the trees are at all thin, which is 

 but seldom, we can see across the deep gorge beneath to the 

 mountains opposite, and beyond them on to range after range of 

 the hills which lie in the Omeo district. To the left of us, as 

 we face north, is Mount Bowen ; whilst in the distance, on the 

 right, we can see Mount Tingiringy. The road descends, sloping 

 along the length of the hill until a little further on we pass on to 

 the crest of the descending hill, and can see the blue mountains 

 away to the north, with the flats of Bonang just beneath us, and 

 to the south the spurs leading up to Mount Goonegerah in the 

 middle distance and Mount Ellery in the background. The hill 

 on which we are has been recently fired, and the track turns sud- 

 denly down its face, passes through a valley rich with waratahs, and 

 Cottonwood trees and ferns, and leads down to the River Bonang. 

 On the brow of the hill we cross an outcrop of hornblendic granite, 

 which apparently comes north, from the direction of Mount 

 Ellery. At the river the track joins the one which runs up from 

 Orbost to the township of Bonang, and, crossing the race which 

 supplies the Rising Sun Mine, runs north-east for i^ miles till 

 we reach the large farm accommodation house, which serves 

 also as post-office and store. The station lies in a flat, 2,500 ft. 

 above sea level, of considerable size, which is now quite cleared 

 and covered with green fields. There is nothing else to be seen 

 but this one house, though there are a few others close to the 

 mine, and a few bark huts just where the tramway from the mine 

 crosses the track. All around are the mountains, covered with 

 monotonous gum forests, and, altogether, Bonang is not an 

 inviting place. 



Close to the river is the beginning of a new track which is now 

 being cut by the surveyors, and which will run almost up to 

 Mount Ellery, Unfortunately for us, as we pass south to 

 Goonegerah, we find the hills very recently fired, which makes it 



