THK VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



to collect new and rare natural history specimens, and to obtain 

 a series of photographs ; and the gentlemen engaged in it were 

 specially qualified by previous training and experience to carry 

 out these objects successfully. Previous expeditions had been 

 made to that locality. Fifty years before, the lake had been 

 discovered by the blacks ; then by Snowden, a stockman, in 

 1886. A little later Mr. A. W. Hovvitt made three attempts by 

 way of the Avon Ranges, and eventually succeeded in reaching 

 the lake, Easter, 1887, in company with one of the blacks 

 who was amongst the original discoverers. Mr. Riggall 

 also made a successful attempt in 1887, and the Misses 

 Howitt, in company with their father, in the following year. 

 The route taken by the present party was northward from Heyfield, 

 through Glenmaggie and Glen Fallock, along the valley of the 

 Macallister and Wellington rivers as far as Crinoline Hill ; then, 

 turning eastward, the Wellington River was followed to the north 

 of Mt. Wellington, and, successfully climbing the mountain, the 

 first glimpse of the lake was caught. This lake has an area of 

 some 23 acres, and is kept in the valley by a dam, from 50 to 100 

 feet high, built like a breakwater of boulders, and covered with 

 scrub and trees. Below this barrier, on the side removed from 

 the lake, is a veritable " Valley of Destruction," with a middle 

 ridge and side troughs, all piled with huge blocks of quartz and 

 porphyry. On the Wellington side of this precipice, and towering 

 for a height of 400 feet, are " Dendy's Heights," so named because 

 Dr. Dendy, on this visit, took the first photograph ever taken of 

 the scene. At a depth of 550 feet below the level of the lake 

 a number of springs filter through the barrier, and form feeders to 

 the Barrier Creek. 



The problem of the formation of the lake strongly excited the 

 interest of the travellers, and hypotheses were laid down which, 

 we venture to think, need further confirmation. Mr. Howitt's is 

 the most popular one, although, as Mr. Lucas showed, it is open 

 to severe criticism. He maintains that glacial action dug out the 

 bed of the lake, and deposited its terminal moraine at the narrow 

 point in the valley ; this is now represented by the dam which 

 holds up the water. Mr. Lucas remarked that this theory lacked 

 supporting evidence in the absence of recognized glacial action 

 elsewhere, and that the angularity of the rocks proves them of 

 more recent origin. His own theory reads well — fissures in the 

 igneous rocks have opened up a more direct communication with 

 the bed of the river above and the valley below than over the lip 

 of the upper valley. Drainage from the upper valley and from 

 the lip caused the hollowing out of the bed of the lake. Dr. 

 Dendy is a little more modest, and supposes the dam owes its 

 origin to the landslips which occurred on either side of the throat 



