26 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



cold bath was simply magical. Even he who had just managed 

 to roll off his horse " deadly stiff," felt himself again, and suffered 

 no more the rest of the trip. A photograph was taken of the 

 river, looking up stream. Here we saw Phijsignathus howittii, the 

 Gippsland Crocodile of the press, really a lizard two or three feet 

 long, of semi-aquatic habits, for the first time. Prof. M'Coy con- 

 siders it to be a variety only of a Queensland species, P. lesueuri. 

 It has been met with in Gippsland on all the rivers of the north 

 and east, and was first described by Prof. M'Coy from specimens 

 obtained for him by Mr. Howitt. Dr. Dendy shot three specimens 

 altogether. In making a rough dissection of one Mr. Lucas 

 found the stomach to be full of the heads, skins, and stings of a 

 kind of bee, of which Physignathus had made a very clean 

 collection. The reptiles seemed to be aimlessly basking on the 

 rocks, but they were evidently not so idle as they looked. 



Out of consideration to those members of the party who were 

 not used to so much riding our leader decided to camp early for 

 the night at a spot about four miles further on, on a well-grassed 

 slope at the foot of what is known as the Gap or Saddle. As we 

 had some hours to spare, Mr. Howitt and Mr. Lucas went 

 botanizing, and the sportsman prowled about for birds. A rocky 

 gorge, dim and deep in its recesses, showed us whence the river 

 came, and where we could not hope to go with horses. On the 

 rugged rocks at the entrance to the gorge we found the bright 

 blue flowers of the Lobelia, Isotoma axillaris, and a number of 

 everlastings, while nearer the river were numbers of flowering 

 shrubs, as Prostanthera rotundifolia, Daviesia buxifolia, &c. With 

 an idea of fishing in the evening we gathered some of the young 

 grasshoppers which abounded. They all seemed to be common low- 

 land species, such as ^dipoda musica, Tropidonotus cinnamonicus, 

 of the ground forms, and the green Phaneroptera valida amongst the 

 bushes. But though the pool was deep we were too tired to fish, and 

 both fish and grasshoppers escaped. Few birds were seen except 

 Musk Crows, and even of these no specimen was secured, another 

 bird {Strepera anaphonensis) being shot in mistake for one of them. 

 On our return to camp our leader initiated us into the art 

 of making scones, and got photographed in the process. Alfred 

 was appropriately told off to mind the cakes, while Mr. Howitt 

 told us the legend of BeUin Bellin, the Musk Crow. At night 

 we tried to get some Mountain Opossums, as the dog was barking 

 up a tree, but we found that he was equally ready to bark up 

 any other tree we chose to stop at, so " Jack " was voted a 

 duffer, and again anathematized by our sportsman. Then we 

 listened to incidents of the Burke and Wills rescue, and retired to 

 rest with the pleasant voice of the river still murmuring in our ears. 



26TH December. — We were up again at 4.30, for one needs 

 must rise early to make good stages in the bush. We had. 



