24S 
THE LADIES' FLORAL CABINET. 
and flocks of cockatoos scream as some great, gray kan¬ 
garoo. bounds past them like a belated ghost. If there 
is marshy ground near, the deep boom of the bittern, 
the wail of the curlew, and the harsh cry of the crane, 
mingling possibly with those of a returning or passing 
flock of black swans, will add to the concert. In a moment 
of silence one may be startled by the mocking laughter 
of the jackass, or the melancholy " mo-poke ” of the bird 
of that name. The dead of night is not so still as the 
universal hush of the burning noon. 
As the afternoon grows we half reluctantly continue 
our way. Leaving the Magnolias behind us. we pass 
through a perfect Fern paradise, nothing meeting the eye 
but tall Tree Ferns above and innumerable Ferns proper 
of all sizes beneath. The Orchids here are also very 
plentiful, and a beautiful creeper, whose name I cannot 
at present recall. 
Shortly afterwards we emerge from this intricate 
scrub and enter an abrupt belt of Gums: passing through 
which we come upon a sloping plain of very green grass, 
considering the late season. The sight is now a very 
beautiful one. We stand upon a kind of plateau, and 
can see for miles, north-east, east and south. Below us 
is a deep gully, dense with Tree Ferns. Rising from 
this, a monotonous wall of Sassafras. White Gum, 
Stringy Bark, etc., rises sheer back till it merges in an 
olive wave that perpetuates itself in endless rolling 
ranges, getting bluer and bluer as they sweep 
into the distance, until their purple lines 
break against the solemn summit of Mount Kosciusko 
in the east, and in the south-east against that great 
succession of towering peaks which guard the sources 
of the Murray River. Mount Bogong heaves his 
rounded shoulders apparently close at hand: and that 
most beautiful of hills, Mount Feathertop (6,300 feet), 
rises in silent grandeur into the serene southern skies. 
Like a twin brother, the rugged mass of Mount Hotham 
(6,100 feet) towers along side this Ben Nevis of Austra¬ 
lia. So intensely clear is the atmosphere, that the tree- 
clad slopes of Mount Feathertop are as distinctly visible 
as though but a mile or two away. The whole scene 
is inconceivably beautiful, and one never to be for¬ 
gotten. As the afternoon wears on, it becomes still 
more so; for that magical blue that shrouds so many of 
the hill-districts of Australia in its soft loveliness just 
before the close of day, begins to steal forth from ap¬ 
parently the farthest eastern ranges, and falls like a 
transparent veil over mountain and height and drowsy 
slope. Only those who have seen in the mountainous 
districts this ineffably delicate and tender blue can 
know what a magical effect it has, even on those ranges 
covered with nothing but the sombre olive of Blue-gum 
foliage. It has a strange dreaminess of unreality about 
it, and seems to spiritualize every object it enfolds. 
As the sun sets beyond the unseen Buffalo Moun¬ 
tains in the West, its last rays light up the sides of 
Mount Bogong with a rich magnificence of color; and 
of a sudden, as it were, the beautiful peak of Feather¬ 
top flashes into extraordinary brilliance, while its top¬ 
most heights glow as with fiery and molten gold. For 
a few moments the hills and ranges seem to be drawing 
towards us. so extraordinary are the atmospheric effects. 
I had one regret—that I had not witnessed this mag¬ 
nificent scene from the summit of Mount Feathertop or 
Ilotham. Such a scene has been elsewhere eloquently 
described, and I cannot refrain from quoting from the 
Government Report the passage in question:— 
“As we made the ascent towards Mount Hotham 
our attention was attracted at first by the rocks 
and the vegetation.On 
the right appeared a mountain rich in bossy sculp¬ 
tures that attracted all eyes. It glowed in the sun 
with all the brightness of the emerald, and over it—as 
it seemed like waves—flashed ever and anon pale tints 
of carmine and purple. In hollows on its flanks lay in 
patches herbage of a vivid green, showing where the 
snow had just disappeared—cradles of young glaciers, 
that can never mature. The high Bogong plains, separ¬ 
ated from us by deep chasms and wide valleys, out of 
which arose solitary peaks and broken ridges, seemed, 
as we gazed on them, to be sleeping ; the slopes were 
scored, but not deeply, the even line of the plain was 
not broken, and the light of the sun fell on them softly, 
not making deep shadows and showing sharp contrasts, 
as in those parts where the denuding forces had worked 
fantastic hollows and carved long straight lines for the 
discharge of melted snows. 
The Bogong plains were sleeping in the thin folds of 
pearl-gray and pale-purple mists that encompassed 
them ; and these mists hid from us Mount Kosciusko, 
Forest Hill, the Pilot, and the lofty ranges lying to the 
eastward. Towards the south. Tabletop, with his cap¬ 
ping of volcanic rock, stood in the centre of an amphi¬ 
theatre. and Mount St. Beniard and the Twins showed 
their peaks on the west. Rising to a greater height, 
we beheld, on the north and north-east, all the lofty 
eminences whose springs feed the Murray; and we 
stopped here, satisfied that Nature could afford no- 
grander spectacle. . . . The magnificent mountains, 
whose crests seemed to lift themselves as we ascended,, 
appeared from this point, tier upon tier, far into the 
blue distance. The deep gorges, almost lost in haze as 
we gazed downwards, showed through the haze some¬ 
thing of then- gloomy recesses.” 
Before turning our horses’ heads towards the south¬ 
west where, a few miles farther on. lay our halting- 
place, we took one long farewell look at the beautiful 
panorama spread out before us ; a sight worth having 
come a long way for. The sun had set, and the splendor 
had gone with it: but instead, a calm, solemn beauty 
overspread every object. The deep blue was deepening 
into purple ; and all at once it seemed as if a camp had 
been lighted in the sky, as Sirius flamed through the 
darkening dusk .—Chambers Journal. 
THE LOOK-OUT TREE. 
The trees and plants of the half-tropical forests of the the North give place to other species of the same family,. 
Southern States are very interesting to one accustomed and many entirely new kinds meet his eye. There are 
to our Northern woods. The Elms, Oaks and Maples of in the South, for example, true Oaks which retain 
