64 THE WOMBAT. 



A TRIP TO MT. SABINE. 



By S. R. J. Mawson & J. Hammertoe. 



On various occasions we have described the road from Geelong to 

 Apollo Bay. This time we will give a few notes on the country 

 between Forrest and Mt. Sabine, from a Photographic stand-point. 

 We left Geelong on Xmas morning, having for companions a stereo 

 quarterplate and a kodak camera, not forgetting a gun and preserving 

 materials for natural history specimens. 



We arrived at Forrest on Boxing Day, passing for miles through 

 dense smoke from the fires which surrounded the place ; here we 

 rested for the night, leaving on the following day for Barramunga, 

 about five miles further on : here we spent a day, and Mr. Stanfield, 

 of the Junction Hotel, kindly acted as guide to show us the beauty 

 spots of the locality. A road has been cut here into the valley, and 

 a bridge made to enable the splitters to briug out the cut timber ; 

 this district is greatly used by the sawmillers, and a tram track is 

 being cut some miles in length. The fern trees grow to a great 

 height in this valley, and some fine views were secured, giving a 

 beautiful stereo effect. Views were also secured on the roads round 

 the place, which is the junction of roads from Colac, Forrest and 

 Apollo Bay. We left on Tuesday for the Mount, and having heard 

 of the amount of scrub cut down on the road and the fires that were 

 raging in all directions, we were anxious to get to our destination. 

 Anyone who has travelled through here will recollect the beauties 

 of the spot on the road known as Comical Corner ; when we passed 

 there it was with feelings of pity at the destruction being caused by 

 the fire, which was sweeping everything before it. We reached the 

 Mount at 5 p.m., not sorry to feel safe once more. Here we stayed 

 for a week at ''The Hermitage," close alongside the trig, station; 

 it would not be a bad idea to have astronomical observations made 

 here. This is now the ju action of tracks to Lome, and to Cape 

 Patton. The Barramunga Creek has its source here, as has also the 

 Barwon, which rises trickling out from amongst the ferns in a pretty 

 little spot which must have been visited before our day, from the 

 stone axes which we found there. There were beauty spots for 

 artist or photographer at every turn, but the fires have now destroyed 

 most of their beauty for this year, so we had to take what views 

 we could get. We left on Jan. 3rd, spending most of the day taking 

 views at the falls and mills at Barramunga, and next day arrived at 

 Forrest and put up at the Terminus Hotel It is the intention of 

 the proprietor to put up a dark room here for the convenience of 

 visitors On the Noonday Creek we saw abundance of birds, and 

 took a great many views, and killed a brown snake on the road back. 



During the trip we secured about five dozen stereo views and 

 a similar number of kodak " bits," getting many little views that 

 would have been difficult with the stand camera. With reluctance 

 we returned to town. 



