46 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 
we crossed the line of the new Mirboo railway, and the land still 
continuing poor, the timber small, and the road dry, we continued 
on to Mirboo North, a distance of about three miles, where the track 
again made the watershed line between the Tarwin and the Morwell, 
and where had it not been for the extensive clearings we should have 
been again among tall timber, as could be seen by the dead 
trunks still standing. Thence the road continued to follow the ridge 
between clearings more or less extensive on both sides, and keeping 
tolerably dry, until by a very steep and rough descent it turned down 
to the Tarwin, which we made just before dark, having come that 
day seventeen miles. 
We did not go right down to the Tarwin, but camped on a creek 
which crossed the road about quarter of a mile from it. Here 
we pitched our tent a few feet from the foot of a large dead 
tree about 200 feet high, against which we made our fire. While 
at tea a discussion arose as to whether the tree would catch alight, 
and if so, which way it would fall, and the last member of the 
party before turning in, put the fire out as well as he could, all 
except a few sparks. In doing so, however, he found that the 
tree was hollow and that the fire had burned through it. We slept 
soundly till about three o’clock in the morning, when waking up we 
found the tree was on fire all up, flames and sparks rushing out of a 
hole about 100 feet from the ground with a roar like a furnace. We 
got up and moved our camp out of reach and lay down, and went to 
sleep again, At about five o’clock we were all awoke by a crack. 
Three heads were at once thrust out of the tent door in time to see 
the tree come down, at first slowly, then with gradually accelerated 
speed, breaking into innumerable smoking fragmeuts with a loud 
report. 
We started at about nine o’clock the next morning, crossing the 
Tarwin, which was a good stream about up to the horses knees, and 
passing through Mirboo South. The clearings once passed, the track 
began again to ascend a spur separating different tributaries of the 
Tarwin, which led across the Hoddle Range, on to another spur 
separating the waters of Stockyard Creek from the waters of the 
Franklin. For some time after leaving Mirboo, the road was 
tolerably dry, but after the first eight or nine miles it became very 
wet, standing in pools covered with a green swamp grass, which 
with short intervals continued all the way until we came close to 
Forster. There was a forest of enormous timber, with dense under- 
growth, on both sides. with only one clearing. At about dark we 
made Stockyard Creek, just outside Forster. We had come, as 
measured on the map; twenty miles, by local estimate, twenty-three. 
We camped upon open ground, near old gold workings. Many gullies 
came down from different directions to join the creek, separated by 
