an 
THE AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST. 3 
How soon one gets over his pettishness under the touch 
of Nature’s hands, and despite heat and flies, ones mind swings 
round by simple gradations and you look with a lover’s eye on 
the gullies you know so well, and it is here on your left is 
Melaleuca Deanii, and close handy down that gully is. Cheel’s 
Bottle Brush Callistemon acuminatus,. and there is. Daviesia 
latifolia, which we lost sight of in the flowering season, and 
over to the right on the next ridge, Mt. Colah Road, is Acacia 
stricta and so on, until you-reach the turn off—now well marked 
—for some well meaning folk have. marked the spot by dumping 
a Returned Soldier on to an impossibility, and built him a 
cottage thereon to count his chicks. ar 
The road is used by wood-getters, and for a bit-is un- 
interesting. Some fine old seribbly gums (H. haemostoma) 
remain, but the country is the same old Hawkesbury sand- 
stone, which you can see with your eyes shut, and for a couple 
of miles the only item of interest appears in a young Butcher 
Bird, which, with the confidence born of youth, permits us to: 
approach close enough to examine without the aid of field 
glasses, whilst its parents utter dismal cries from the depths 
of a gully, and three crows hover round, doubtless croaking 
sound advice to the youngster: However, as we could not 
minister to its wants, we proceed, and soon are in “terra in- 
cognita” and the road becomes interesting as it follows a nar- 
row ridge with Connolly’s Creek on the right and some very 
broken country on the left. Connolly’s Creek rises at the 
back of Asquith Station, and is the most interesting part of the 
district. i 
The gum trees from here include Hucalyptus resinifera 
and E. punctata, the former known as Red Mahogany, and 
the latter as Red Gum. Acacias are almost absent, A. hispidulus 
being the only one we meet with. Pultenea Deanti abounds, 
and a strange Casuarina distyla—a hungry looking tree. 
Looking towards Kuringai—the station being visible—the 
small leaved form of the Scribbly gum (Haemastoma micrantha) 
catches your eye. Its bark show out in stripes of pale blue 
of an exquisite tone, and Angophora lanceolatus also in full 
glory of new bark, appeared as if blushing at its nakedness 
and lending a touch of color to the depths below. 
The road from here has been well built, the stone facings 
suggest convict labour, and as we descend we discuss the ques- 
tion—and wonder. ; 
Passing through a natural avenue of “She Oaks” (casuarina 
torrulosa) we are tempted to léave the road and go straight on 
to the point where Connolly’s Creek joins Berowra, and after- 
