116 THE HIGHLANDS OF LAKE ST. CLAIR. 



formed by the level country at the head of Gordon Valley. 

 After reaching the ISTavarre Plain, the new track diverges 

 towards the south with a view to avoid the damp ground, but 

 in dry weather there is a short cut across the plain to the 

 bridge erected over the ISTavarre, a pretty little stream which 

 rises in the slopes of Mount E,ufus and flows eastward into 

 the Derwent abreast of the Wentworth Hills. A walk of a 

 couple of miles more, with the bold bluffs of King William 

 towering up in front, takes the traveller to the Iron Hut under 

 the mountain, and which has been for the past few years the 

 depot for provisioning the road party engaged in making 

 the track to the King Rivei" Grold-fi.elds. 



In this district the gum forest is chiefly stringy bark (E- 

 ohliqtia), and hetweeii the Hut and base of the mountain there 

 is a small button-rush plain, traversed by a little stream 

 which runs into the Navarre. The first beech groves met with 

 on this route, except those which clothe the western shores 

 of Lake St. Clair, are in the vicinity of the Iron Hut. About 

 a mile before reaching the hut, a clump of deep green foliage 

 is observed between the track and Mount Eufus, which is soon 

 discovered to be a grove of beeches [F. Cunninghami) , and 

 thenceforward to the West Coast this tree is moi'e or less 

 prominent. At the foot of Mount King William, and at the 

 farther margin of the little button-rush plain just alluded to, 

 is a splendid beech grove, in which I measured a monarch of 

 the forest which was 27 feet in girth. Perhaps most of the 

 Pellows of this Society have wandered through the beech 

 forests of the West of Tasmania, but there may be some whose 

 acquaintance with this tree is limited to the solitary specimens 

 met with here and there in the dells of Mount Wellington., 

 To such, I may be permitted to say, that on suddenly entering 

 one of these beautiful woods, ignorainiously called " myrtle 

 scrubs," the traveller is translated in an instant to the cool, 

 shady, and romantic forests of Sovithern or Central Europe. 

 All around stand weird and moss-coveredtrunks of lofty stature, 

 whose giganticlichen-clad limbs stretch out among the feathery 

 beech foliage, upon which, as the wind sways the branches 

 overhead,{fitf ul gleams of sunlight play for an instant, and then 

 fall on the massive decaying logs which lie strewn among the 

 ferns. For the most part an absolute stillness pervades these 

 verdant solitudes, as scarcely a bird-note enlivens their depths, 

 and the usual animals of the Australian bush seem to be 

 absent from them. 



So far, my remarks on the country through which the West 

 Coast tract runs have been introductory, and relate to our 

 journey to King William from Marlborough on the 18th and 

 19th of February last. On the morning of the 20th we started 

 for the King River and continued our journey along the new 



