92 A NATURALIST IN TASMANIA ch. 



on the extreme western edge of the greenstone 

 plateau, and bordering on the mountain ranges of 

 the west coast. I had considerable difficulty in 

 securing a guide and conveyance for this journey, 

 as for the first twenty miles or so there is no 

 road at all, but only a very rough stock track 

 passing over swampy plains and boulder-strewn 

 hills ; indeed, if it had not been for the dryness 

 of the weather during the two preceding weeks 

 it would have been practically impossible to get 

 through. We made the journey in a light two- 

 horse buggy, and took a tent with us and pro- 

 visions for about a week, so that with my dredging 

 apparatus, about six hundred feet of rope, and 

 two large bags of chaff for the horses, not to 

 mention guns, opossum-skin rugs, and changes 

 of clothes, the buggy presented a rather business- 

 like appearance. I was very fortunate in securing 

 the driver I did, Walter Davie, as he managed 

 the horses admirably under peculiarly difficult 

 conditions, and enlivened the succession of long 

 days' driving by apposite quotations from the 

 ' Man from Snowy River ', the whole of which 

 spirited ballad he appeared to have by heart. It 

 was also fortunate that neither he nor his employer 

 had ever made the trip before, as both of them 

 emphatically declared on our return that they 

 would never undertake to do it again. We 

 expected the first twenty miles to be rough going, 

 and it was ; but when we got on to the Linda 

 track, which we expected to be good, we found 



