THE GEELONG NATURALIST. N25») 
perhaps in a circle and yet be only a short distance from his 
destination. He has no possible means of taking his bearings, as 
he cannot see the sky on account of the denseness of the scrub; 
nor are the trees strong enough for him to climb and so obtain a 
view of the surrounding country ; and if he follow one of the 
small streams, it will in all probability only lead him to some 
swamp of slimy mud, and rank sword and wire grass. If we pass 
through these swamps, we come to a lighter and sandier soil near 
the sea. Here flourishes the honeysuckle tree, with its dark, 
horny leaves and prickly yellow blossom. One peculiarity of this 
tree is that the wood is so porous that a single log of it will 
burn. For this reason, it makes splendid firewood. It also burns 
slowly and with very little flame, but makes a hot glowing fire, the 
embers of which keep alight for a very long time. 
In company with the honeysuckle grow many kinds of tea- 
tree and heaths; gradually becoming more and more stunted as’ 
the salt of the ocean effects them, until the vegetation. ceases 
altogether in a belt of mangroves, or on the dry, white sand of the 
ocean beach. 
There is no equal tract of forest land supports so little animal 
life as in Australia. The feed is too scant to keep animals per- 
manently in large herds, and the seasons too uncertain for them to 
learn the habit of animal migration. The scantiness of game is. 
shown by the scarcity of carnivora; the dingo or native dog 
being the only animal of prey in the country, except insignificant 
vermin, nor must he be blamed for keeping down the number of 
other animals. It is true he kills some, but it is the climate that 
keeps the numbers low. Floods and bush fires have a fearful 
effect both on the representatives of the vegetable and the animal 
kingdom here. In the Victoriam forests, kangaroos are more 
numerous and animal life geuerally more vigourous than in any 
other part of Australia. Numbers of opossums may be seen at 
night feeding on the foliage of the Eucalypts, while even in the day 
time, we often see perched up in some prong, a sluggish native 
bear, blinking sleepily at being disturbed, for nearly all the 
Australian fauna are nocturnal in their habits. During the day, 
nought is heard except the piercing cries of flocks of parrots of 
gaudy plumage, feeding on the blossom of the gums, and the songs 
of small birds, or the occasional caw of the crow and wild laugh of 
the laughing jackass, seated on a dead limb of some monarch of 
the forest. O too, one hears the strange note of the 
coach-whip bird from some dense thicket. 
Before concluding, perhaps I cannot do better than give a slight 
description of that greatest enemy to our forests a bush-fire. 
For days and months the earth has been hot, parched and 
cracked. For months the creeks have ceased to flow, the trees have 
lived but not grown, and the sky remains cloudless. The plains are 
burnt bare and dusty. The waterholes are surrounded by the bodies 
of dead sheep, and the air quivers before the eye by the radiation 
of its heat. The forest is browner, sadder and still in the oppresive 
