50 A NATURALIST IN TASMANIA ch. 



grass, Tree-ferns, &c., in many places is almost 

 impenetrable. 



The mountain rises up as a dark, rather shape- 

 less mass at the west of the town ; the top is 

 flat, but at the northern end, towards the town, 

 falls suddenly to a precipitous cliff formed of 

 apparently basaltic pillars arranged organ-pipe- 

 wise. The top of the mountain can be seen to 

 be extremely rocky and barren, and to rise well 

 above the zone of forest which clothes the lower 

 slopes with great luxuriance. The forest on the 

 eastern slopes of the mountain facing the town 

 has luckily been spared, but to the south and 

 south-west the ruinous fire of nine summers ago 

 has destroyed a great part of the vegetation upon 

 the higher slopes, leaving the unsightly white 

 spars of the Gum-trees standing by thousands, or 

 lying prone upon a parched and rocky soil that 

 has not yet sufficiently recovered to support even 

 a moderate undergrowth. It is seldom that a 

 bush fire does its work so completely ; frequently 

 the Gum-trees may burn for many hours and be 

 completely stripped of foliage and yet speedily 

 recover ; but the undergrowth on Mount Welling- 

 ton afforded too rich a fuel, and for many square 

 miles there is hardly a living Gum-tree left of 

 the giants that stood there once. I know of few 

 places so desolate or dispiriting to walk through 

 as these charred and blasted acres ; one would 

 like to hurry through them, but the way is barred 

 at every turn by fallen trunks and jagged twisted 



