38 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



which gave way under their feet ; then, the coast being clear on the 

 other side, the big horse would go up the bank like a house on 

 fire, while the packer remained in the river to drink, so that one's 

 arms were dragged pretty well out of their sockets holding back 

 the one and lugging on the other. We found that some of the 

 fords were characterized by the presence of particular shrubs on 

 the banks — one by Lomatia longifolia, another by Callistemon 

 salignus, and others respectively by Dodonea viscosa, Prostanthera 

 rotundifolia, Leptosjjervium scoparium. 



We managed to make 1 7 miles this afternoon and camped for 

 the night near the creek which comes down from the Crinoline 

 Hill. On the bank of the river close to the camp Dr. Dendy 

 shot a very fine specimen of Physignathus, but although he made 

 a resolute attempt to skin it by the light of the camp fire there 

 was not time or light enough to finish it, and by the time we 

 reached Melbourne the specimen was ruined. Even the skull 

 was destroyed, for it was shot at close range with a charge of 8's. 



30TH December. — We rose early as usual and, immediately 

 after having his breakfast, Alfred left us to ride on to Heyfield, 

 where he had another engagement. To our great relief he took 

 the dog with him. Before starting on our day's march we photo- 

 graphed a very fine terraced hill on the river, just below the 

 camp, which looked as if it must be a splendid place for Rock 

 Wallabies. Our day's march was not exciting and we had all 

 we could do to make the lame horse go at all. We pushed on as 

 fast as we could, and managed to save a good deal of time at the 

 fords by double-banking Mr. Lucas's horse. On these occasions 

 we felt the want of a detective camera, for we cannot adequately 

 describe the scene in words — Mr. Lucas and Dr. Dendy crossing 

 the ford, one behind the other on the same horse, carrying a gun 

 and leading a pack-horse by a rope at the same time. They very 

 nearly came to grief several times, but not quite. The only 

 member of the party who thoroughly enjoyed the proceedings was 

 our leader, who stood on the bank and laughed irreverently. 

 About midday we stopped to photograph a fine red rock by 

 one of the fords, and to save time we boiled the billy and 

 made our frugal lunch at the same place. After crossing this ford 

 we killed a fine exam.ple of the Black Snake {Pseudechys por- 

 jyhijriacus), but the doctor's ford stick was broken in half in the 

 process and henceforth had to be carried in two pieces. Further on 

 we stopped to photograph another terraced hill. Then we pushed 

 on again and presently met Mr. William Riggall,_ who had heard 

 of our approach from Alfred, and had very kindly ridden up 

 from Glen Falloch to meet us. He accompanied us to the 

 station, and on the way we left the lame horse in a paddock, and 

 were glad to get rid of him. We hoped he would have recovered, 

 but we might as well have shot him at the lake, for latest advices 



