424 
Account of the country between 
past this waterfall, as it monopolizes the entire bottom of the valley 
—the hills on either hand rising with great acclivity. I however 
managed it by a rude flight of stairs, formed of the trunks of 
fern-trees, which I contrived to fasten to the steep slope of the 
hill with stakes. The Acheron has to be frequently crossed on 
temporary bridges in this forest. After a course of about twenty 
miles, during which it becomes a good sized stream, it enters the 
Franklin. 
Proceeding through Glow-worm Forest, it was found at one 
place altogether impracticable to continue in the bottom of the 
valley. To lead the track along the steep hill-sides, which slope 
down to the Acheron, became therefore inevitable; and it was 
necessary for the security of those travelling this part of it, to fix 
stout hand-rails on the lower side of the path, for a distance of a 
quarter of a mile. A long and very steep ascent, has to be 
mounted ere escaping the defile of the Acheron. 
Emerging from this ravine, we crossed a miserable plain of about 
1,500 acres, composed of the very poorest of grey sands, largely 
mixed with quartz gravel, and producing neither a blade of grass, 
nor a particle of useful herbage. It is encompassed by bare 
white-looking hills of unsurpassed sterility, from which circum¬ 
stance it was called the White Hill Plain. Our route for the 
next two miles led across this worthless tract, the last part of 
which brought us to the summit of a clear hill, overlooking, in the 
direction of Macquarie Harbour, a vast extent of black forest 
land ; the monotony of which is unrelieved by either the bold or 
fine scenery, which in Van Diemen’s Land so often presents itself, 
even where the general character of the landscape is uninteresting. 
At this point the picture is inconceivably forbidding and gloomy. 
Leaving the White Hill plain, we entered an immense forest 
which stretches to the coast, presenting, only occasionally, small 
and most unfertile open spaces. The principal limber of this 
quarter is the myrtle, which in the western districts seldom indi¬ 
cates good land. The soil producing them is sometimes tolerable, 
but by no means usually so; while that of all the plains, west of 
Fatigue Hill, is invariably poor, except a small plot on the Loddon 
