II HOBART AND THE MIDLANDS 51 



limbs ; the surface of this fallen timber is white 

 and polished where it is not charred, and after 

 hours of scrambling, the traveller issues shaken 

 and blackened from the depressing wilderness. 

 There are, however, considerable patches of virgin 

 forest left even on the southern and south-western 

 slopes untouched by the fire ; one little bit, through 

 which a track passed, I liked especially. On 

 entering it one passed from bright sunlight out- 

 side to a dim twilight within ; on each side of 

 the track a tangled mass of shrubs and small 

 trees grew so thickly round the boles of enormous 

 Gum-trees, which towered a hundred or two 

 hundred feet above them, that the eye could 

 not penetrate more than a few yards, except 

 where a spar had recently fallen and cleared an 

 alley. This underscrub consisted here chiefly of 

 the native Laurel, really a large tree Saxifrage 

 with pretty white flowers something like orange- 

 blossom, a thornless Acacia, the so-called Sas- 

 safras (Atherosperma moschata), whose bark has 

 a distinct bitter flavour and was used by the 

 blacks medicinally, while scattered among the 

 Gum-trees the native M.jvtle4(Fagus Cunninghami), 

 which is really a Beech, grows to a considerable 

 height. This last-named tree under certain con- 

 ditions upon the west coast of Tasmania forms 

 the chief element in the forest, and may attain 

 a height of a hundred feet or more. It possesses 

 a graceful rather slender form, and the leaves 

 are exceedingly small, giving the branches rather 



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