22 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



handy man for the trip), the three pack-horses, and an escort 

 comprising Mr. Du Ve, of Rosedale, who had kindly assisted us 

 in making our arrangements, and Mr. Cox, the mounted constable 

 in charge of the district, who rode with us to Glenmaggie, 

 perhaps to see us safe off the premises. There was also an 

 uninvited member of the expedition in the person of a collie dog 

 belonging to the owner of the pack-horses, who would not leave 

 us, but accompanied us right up to the lake. We never discovered 

 his name, though we tried him with all the names in the (dog's) 

 calendar. The various eccentricities of our horses soon began to 

 show themselves. The chestnut which Mr. Howitt rode was a 

 light, plucky little horse ; although he started with a sore back, 

 which necessitated a re-stufifing of the saddle before we set out from 

 Heyfield, so successfully did our leader handle him that on his 

 return the sore was cured. Mr. Lucas's mount was a big ba}', 

 strong enough for half a dozen, who made a very poor attempt at 

 keeping to the easy paces of the chestnut, but for carrying two, or 

 for forcing his way up a steep bank, he was unrivalled. Dr. 

 Dendy bestrode a big brown horse, who was no doubt very useful 

 in the lowlands, but was about as clumsy among the rocks as a 

 Manchester cart-horse, and suffered in consequence, as will appear 

 in the sequel. The boy's horse was a skewbald, and though 

 decidedly " a rum 'un to look at," seemed to be also " a good 'un 

 to go." 



The three pack-horses we shall not soon forget. Boco was 

 blind of one eye. Brownie had a "jinked back," i.e., was gone 

 in the loins. Biddy went everywhere but on the track, and on 

 coming to a tree took her pleasure in veering to the right if she 

 saw you working to the left — a proceeding which leads to entangle- 

 ment and unphilosophical language. But we shall discover more 

 of the ways of packers as we proceed, and must not allow them to 

 make us linger in our narrative as they did upon our journey. 



We had first to leave the basin of the Thomson, and cross the 

 low watershed which separates it from the basin of the 

 Macallister, the Glenmaggie Creek being a tributary of the latter. 

 The country between Heyfield and Glenmaggie is shghtly 

 undulating, and consists of sands, gravels, and conglomerates of 

 the Upper Tertiaries. The timber is. small and light, consisting in 

 part of that poor creature, Eticaly^ytus stuartiana, the Apple-tree 

 Gum, the wood of which is valueless even as fuel. Most of the 

 birds — Leatherheads, Honey-eaters, &:c. — seemed more or less 

 familiar, and so did most of the plants of the underscrub. The 

 most interesting plants that were new to us were the well-marked 

 variety of Trachymene hillardieri, called by the Baron von 

 Mueller cuneata, the bushes of which were crowded with pretty 

 white globular umbels ; Pomax umbeUata, which was in fruit ; and 

 a pink MelaUiica, which we failed to gather on our return. 



