124 THE HIGHLANDS OP LAKE ST, CLAIR, 



route cannot be chosen without using the boat, which 

 is at present in too leaky a condition to venture very- 

 far in. On the evening before my ascent of the mountain, 

 I launched the boat and crossed the lake in her, but 

 it took two of us to bail her out as the third pulled, 

 or she would have sunk. It is much to be regretted 

 that thei'e is not a good boat on the lake, as it is impossible 

 to get round the densly wooded shores, and even if such were 

 not the case, very little of the scenery could be viewed with 

 advantage. The present craft was very kindly placed upon the 

 lake by Messrs. Piguenit and Scott in 1874, and had she been 

 carefully looked after would have been serviceable for years 

 to come. 



Finding the lake route impracticable, I started from 

 camp at the Boat House at seven o'clock on the morning of 

 the 19th of February, taking Mr. Orr with me as a guide, and 

 proceeded along Scott's track, which crosses the Cuvier about 

 a mile from the lake and keeps to the north side of the river 

 as far as Lake Petrarch, whence it ascends the Coal Hill 

 Eange, and passes thence into the low country to the West 

 Coast. I understand that this track has not been used for 

 many years. After leaving the Eldon Eange it descends 

 into very diflG.cult country, and now that the more southern 

 route, via Mount Arrowsmith, has been adopted, there will 

 be no further use for it, as regards a direct road to the West 

 Coast. When, however, the Lake country becomes better 

 known, and tourists frequent the district I am speaking of, 

 Scott's track will, no doubt, be useful to pedestrians, in giving 

 access to the grand region to the north of the Eldon Range, 

 and it might be continued down the gorges of the Murchison 

 and the Mackintosh Rivers, which, when Tasmania becomes 

 the tourist-land of Australia, will furnish some of the most 

 beautiful scenery in Australasia. The Vale of Cuvier, into 

 which the track first of all strikes, is an undulating button- 

 grass plain, studded here and there with clumps of young 

 gums, giving it a park-like appearance, the beauty of which 

 is enhanced by the towering walls of Olympus, and the 

 precipitous peak of Mount Byron. The track is marked out 

 along the river with stakes. We found it much overgrown, 

 as it has not been burnt out for four or five years, and the 

 walking was consequently very heavy. At about five miles 

 from the lake we turned across the valley and struck into 

 the forest, making up the slope of the mountain to the foot 

 of the crags at the south end. At the limit of the forest, on 

 coining out into low rocky scrub, we met with the deciduous 

 beech (F. Gunni), which was growing in a bush-like form 

 among the boulders, the altitude being about 3,800 feet, and 

 passing over this rough track we reached the foot of a narrow 



