229 THE AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST, 
Parrots (Aprosmictus cyanopygius) were busily engaged 
chatting amongst the Eucalypts, and we had a good oppor- 
tunity to note the striking difference between the scarlet- 
coated male and his mottled green partner. While rest- 
ing again a punctata, about half-way up, the grandeur of 
the scene at our feet absorbed us, and we wasted precious 
moments drinking in the picture. The opposite bank rose 
in a massive sandstone cliff, apparently some hundreds 
of feet higher than the bank we were on, and suggested 
that to reach Mt. Kembla, near the coast, an aeroplane 
would be necessary. ; 
? 
As ‘‘Nae man can tether time nor tide,’’ and we had 
to pick up the blazed trail on our way home, we reluc- 
tantly turned our backs on the picture and resolutely 
scaled the rest of the distance. On the level again we 
could pick up the ‘‘gib’’ at Bowral, standing out sentinel- 
like over some of the weirdest country in New South 
Wales. 
We saw a pair of birds, probably Pallid Cuckoo, but 
they were very wild, evidently civilisation and its gun 
had disturbed the equanimity of their lives. Some scrub 
wrens refused to be identified, although we had a copy 
of ‘‘Leach’’ with us for the purpose, and gave us a lively 
chase. 
Picking up the ‘‘Devvy*’ again we followed a cart 
track, and soon had the satisfaction of passing through 
“Canvas Town’? at the eleven-mile peg. This home of 
the ‘‘navvy’’ looked very picturesque amongst the gum 
trees, and was reminiscent of the gold diggings, only that 
it was laid out in squares, and had a permanent supply 
of water stored in a vast array of tanks, and pumped from 
the ‘‘Bargo,’’ two miles away. 
Two stores. two fat women, and a new chum in full 
feather, made us feel that we had dropped from _ the 
clouds into the turmoil of life once again. Chummy had 
not heard of the ‘‘Smiddy’’ where we should have re- 
ported, nor did he know where the pipe line was, and we 
wished afterwards that we had remained in blissful ignor- 
ance of its wheréabouts. 
The sun was getting very low as we stumbled, climbed 
and slid over that two miles of pipes into the Bargo, where 
