

THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 171 



The next day, Thursday, they went in the morning to see the 

 Frank Falls on a stream about a mile away through the bush. 

 The water descends in a single leap for some eighty feet from the 

 mountain side into a deep and narrow gorge. With its luxuriant 

 setting of tree ferns and the sunlight making rainbows in the 

 spray, it forms a lovely sight, well worth the tramp through the 

 scrub and the hard scramble up and down the precipitous sides 

 of the gorge. 



The bright sunlight and warmth of the day gave rise to hopes 

 that in collecting the luck might have changed, but it was not so, 

 and vigorous shakes of shrubs and saplings into the umbrella 

 yielded nothing new. Nor was any better fortune experienced 

 with the dry branches of fallen trees — only representatives of the 

 same old genera were to be seen. Getting tired of these non- 

 successful attempts, attention was turned again to the logs, but 

 still in vain, and the day passed without any notable additions to 

 the list of captures. 



One of the most noticeable points, so far as the botany is con- 

 cerned, was the great number of plants of the little orchid 

 (Jhiloglottis gunnii — green and brown varieties. These are 

 scattered all over the ground for a mile or two round about 

 Shaw's Hotel. Usually the leaves lie prone, but in many cases 

 the seeds have fallen under the edges of logs, when to get to the 

 light the leaves have to grow upwards, and so assume a more or 

 less upright position with stalks. 



Friday was fine and warm, and the morning was spent in 

 wandering along the recently cut Yarra Track, which leads down 

 from close by the Yarra Track Hotel to the river, where pros- 

 pectors are at work. This track cuts the river much nearer to 

 its source than the old Reefton one, though at present it is not 

 continued on to the southern side. The same species of coleop- 

 tera as before mentioned were found, together with examples of 

 Papilio macleayanus and Xenica hobartia amongst butterflies. 

 The logs also yielded many specimens of planarians, the chief 

 forms being Geoplana alba, s]?enceri, and dendyi, of which two 

 blue-coloured specimens were found, and a single one of G. 

 macmahoni. 



We spend the evening in resting, smoking, comparing notes, 

 and arranging our photographic apparatus, and are by no means 

 sorry to have a good shelter from the rain, which again falls in 

 torrents. We can strongly recommend the Yarra Track Hotel as 

 a most comfortable one to use as headquarters from which to 

 explore the neighbourhood. The streams around, some falling 

 down to the Yarra, some to the Goulburn valley, are rich in 

 blackfish, and offer strong attractions to the followers of Izaak 

 Walton. Of rambles through bush and scrub, up and down 

 mountain sides, there are endless numbers for those who care to 



