1854—5. 
VICTORIA. 
GOVERNMENT BOTANIST. 
REPOET OP HIS JOHEHEY TO OMEO. 
LAID upon the Council Table hj the Colonial Secretary, hy Command of His 
Excellency the Lieutenant Governor, and ordered hy the Council to he 
printed, ZOth January, 1855. 
The Government Botanist to the Colonial Secretary. 
Omeo, 16th December, 1854. 
. . tT" 
I do myself the honor of laying before you, for communication to His 
Excellency the Lieutenant Governor, an account of my journey as far as this 
locality. 
Leaving Melbourne on the 1st of November, I travelled through the 
Fern-tree GullTes to the La Trobe River, and thence to the Avon, and ascended 
Mount Wellington from the ranges of the latter stream on the 14th of November. 
The altitude of this mountain appears to me more than 5,000 feet, a snow 
storm lasting here, even at so advanced a season, for a whole day. Tlie mam 
journey to the central part of the Australian Alps I commenced again from the 
Avon on the 22nd November, proceeding to the Mitchell Rivm’, and thence to 
the Dargo. Following along the scrubby ranges between this river and the 
Wentworth, I crossed the Dividing Range between the waters of Gipps Land 
and those of the Murray River near the upper part of the Cabongra. 1 hence 
I traversed a grassy table land in a north-easterly direction along the Cabongra 
downward, until the country appeared practicable, towards the north, to reach 
the highest part of the Bogong Ranges. 
The ran<»-es hereabouts, which never before have been traversed by 
civilized men, me generally fertile, and timbered with the mountain White 
Gum tree (Eucalyptus phlebophylla). u- u i. 
On the 3rd December I ascended the south-eastern oi the two highest 
mountains of the Bogong Range. In its upper regions even the vegetation of 
bushes ceases, the slightly arched summit being covered with Alpine grasses and 
herbs. About noon I ascertained the boiling water point to be 198 , according 
to Fahrenheit’s thermometer, and 75° according to Reaumur’s scale. 1 am at 
present unable to calculate from this the barometer height and approximative 
altitude of this mountain, but I believe that it will be found nearly 7,000 teet 
above the level ol the sea. The much more abrupt and yet higher summit ot 
the north-western mount I ascended from the Upper Mitta Mitta, which skir s 
its base, on the 6th December. The boiling water point I observed aga,in to be 
198° F. (although the elevation of this mountain is unquestionably liiglier to 
the extent of several hundred feet), a circumstance owing to the greater 
atmospherical pressure of that day. The observation was instituted 
afternoon about three o’clock. On both these mountains mighty masses o 
lay far below the summits, lodging chiefly in the ravines, and these never 
entirely under the heat of the summer sun. 
A.— No. 45. 
