92 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



NOTES OF A COLLECTING TRIP TO PYRAMID HILL. 



By Rev. E. Halford Hennell. 



( Read before the Field Naturalists 1 Club of Victoria, i$t/i Oct.,1890.) 



Being invited to effect an exchange with a friend at Pyramid Hill 

 for a week or two, I was glad to avail myself of an opportunity to 

 visit " fresh fields and pastures new," where I might obtain different 

 specimens to add to my collection. I left Melbourne on Friday, 

 the 29th August, by the 5.40 p.m. train, arriving at my destination 

 about midnight, after a rather slow journey, typical of the Victorian 

 railways. Pyramid Hill is situated nearly 155 miles north-west of 

 Melbourne and is 294 ft. above sea level, being on the line to 

 Swan Hill. It takes its name from a hill situated about one mile 

 from the township, which somewhat resembles the outline of one 

 of the Egyptian pyramids. 



The next morning, in order to lose no time ; I determined to 

 look round and see what might be done to help to rid the district 

 within reach of all (to the local people) noxious reptiles and 

 insects I could get, being well provided with bottles for their 

 accommodation. So, having partaken of an early breakfast, I set 

 out, and was not long in discovering that the only places in which 

 I was likely to be successful were Pyramid Hill, with the adjoining 

 hills, and the various low-lying swamps and waterholes. 



After introducing myself to friends I met with one who offered 

 to accompany me, which offer I willingly accepted ; so, shortly 

 after, we made a start for the hill. I found that it is composed 

 chiefly of granite rocks, some of these being of a great size. I 

 only noticed one other variety of stone, and that in small quantities. 

 The hill appears just as if it was the result of a strong convulsive 

 upheaval at some remote period, the rocks lying in all conceivable 

 positions ; but Mr. J. B. Lillie Mackay, in a lecture on " The 

 Formation and Classification of Rocks," in the School of Mines 

 at Sandhurst, October, 1888, says that granite rocks are " formed 

 of considerable depth beneath the surface. . . . They never 

 come to the surface in the first instance, and when exposed 

 . . . the exposure is due to subsequent erosion of overlying 

 beds," which may be the case in this instance. The hill is, I am 

 informed, some five or six hundred feet high, and is the last and 

 highest of a chain of similar hills. I noticed some of the adjacent 

 rocks are about 30 ft. or 40 ft. in length by 6 ft. to 10 ft. wide, 

 and little more than the surface is exposed above ground. At 

 one part a stone-crushing plant had been erected, and the stone 

 used to ballast a portion of the railway line to Kerang, the quarry 

 being connected by a branch to the main line. Some of the 

 granite is very hard, whilst some is crumbling away, yielding at 

 once to the blows of a hammer ; in many instances large portions 

 of the surface on the more level rocks, about one inch in thickness, 



