STANNIFEKOTJS DEPOSITS OF TASMANIA. 91 



Before closing my remarks on this great source of stanniferous 

 wealth, a few words descriptive of the climate and the vegetation 

 of the region may not be considered altogether out of place. The 

 climate of Mount Bischoff is simply execrable. It is a proverb 

 that it rains at Mount Bischoff when it rains nowhere else. As a 

 rule it rains nine months out of twelve. The terribly dense 

 nature of the surrounding myrtle forests, doubtless, has much to 

 do with this meteorological condition of things. The result is that 

 all vegetation is thickly draped with moss, also the boulders 

 scattered over the surface of the ground. Club mosses abound, 

 the growth and decay of which have furnished a covering of peat 

 seldom less than 1 foot, but more often 4 and 5 feet thick. 

 This, and the dense scrub and larger timber constitute the strip- 

 ping of the miner, for immediately beneath is the washdirt. 



Nature, perhaps, never threw greater difficulties in the path of 

 the pioneer of a country's mineral resources than those met with 

 at this inhospitable region. The great barrier which confronts him 

 on every side is the growth before mentioned — the "horizontal." 

 It consists of trees whose stems and branches have a circumference, 

 as a rule, varying from 1 foot to 3 and 4 feet, and which ha^ve 

 a peculiarity of twisting, folding, and interlacing themselves 

 to such an extent that a vast arborean reticulation is presented, 

 often to a height of 25 feet, and through which an object 

 is seldom visible at a distance of ten yards. At short distances 

 through this network tall myrtle and pine trees ascend, whose 

 branches, often meeting overhead, produce a Cimmerian gloom, 

 through which the sunlight never penetrates. The rank odour of 

 decaying vegetation is often almost overpowering. Everything 

 is covered with moss and fungi. Hence the moisture is sufficient 

 to render the country a fit habitation for a species of land lobster, 

 whose circular mud-built walls and burrows are found everywhere. 

 These opposing obstacles to the prospector are gradually vanishing. 

 Tracks are being cut in all directions, and ere long in the silence 

 and solitude of the primal forest, with its impenetrable barriers of 

 " horizontal" will be heard the sound of the miner's pick, the boom 

 of the blast, and snorting of the engine — those forerunners of 

 advancing civilization. 



2. Mount Ramsay. 



At a distance of about ten miles from Mount Bischoff, Mount 

 Ramsay rears its bold front to an altitude of over 4,000 feet. 

 This mountain has no place on the map of the island, it having 

 been recently named by the late Government Geologist of Tas- 

 mania, Mr. Gould, in honor of the President of the Geological 

 Society of London. It would seem that the early surveyors had 

 not penetrated so far inland in a southerly direction, probably 



