58 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 
afternoon, but there was nothing to do but to load up again and make 
the best of our way on to the higher ground. Getting out of the 
water the track turned up a slope covered in the first instance with tea- 
scrub and afterwards a small gum timber. In alittle way it skirted 
a gully in which was a spring of good water. Here we determined 
to camp, and having pitched our tent, proceeded to light a roaring 
fire in a sheltered hollow at the top of the gully, by which we dried 
our clothes and rugs, got supper and turned in. Notwithstanding 
our mishap we slept quite warm and dry. We had come that day 
about ten miles. 
The next morning the road continued to pass through not dis— 
similar country, skirting at some miles distance Anderson’s Inlet. 
Soon we found selections upon one side or both sides, which con- 
tinued till we reached Screw Creek. It was low tide when we got 
there, and we found the water a little above our knees, with a good 
rocky bottom. After crossing the creek the selections ceased. We 
were directed a near cut to the left, which in about a mile from Screw 
Creek, took us to a creek of fresh water, where we had lunch. Thence 
we continued across heathy plains with belts and clumps of small 
timber. Towards evening we could make out the Bass ranges in 
front of us, and soon after the top of Cape Woolamai. Turning 
off the main track by a branch track to the right near a stockyard, at 
about sun-down we reached the Powlett. Here again there was 
the house of a settler, though it appeared empty except one old man 
who seemed to be care-taker. We camped by the roadside. We 
had come that day twenty miles. 
The next morning we bathed in the Powlett. It was a good 
stream of fresh water about up to our middles, say fifty feet across, 
There was an old bridge of round timber over it. While we were 
loading up, Mr. Griffith, a neighbouring settler, came by and directed 
us how to find our way by a short cut over the hills to the Bass, 
which we accordingly reached without passing through Kilceunda. 
We lunched by its banks and then proceeded by the coach road to 
Grantville. At the store here we had to buy more buscuits to 
replace those which had been spoilt by the salé water. The store- 
keeper also filled our billies with fresh water; we had before watered 
the horse by the road-side. About half a mile out of the township 
we turned off the road into the bush and camped. The next day we 
continued along the coach road to Tooradin getting lunch by Tobin 
Yallock, the last fresh water creek we passed before Dandenong. 
The road lay first through forests of small timber, white gum | 
prevailing; then large paddocks sown with clover which grew. 
luxuriantly, covering the road on both sides of the track. This was 
especially the case at Caldermead, an estate on the left bank of 
Tobin Yallock. This estate evidently consists of a reclaimed swamp 
as could be seen by the deep drains and occasional clumps of tea 
