PROSPECTING IN CAPE OTWAY FOREST.

Evening Star, Issue 4161, 28 June 1876, Page 4

PROSPECTING IN CAPE OTWAY FOREST.

{Melbourne Daily Telegraph )

The following letter from one of the 'members of the Otway Prospecting Party has been published in the ‘ Colac Herald’:—“ My object in writing is to give you a short description of these mountain ranges. After I crossed the rellibrand River’on my road to join >he prospecting party, I came on to a -iece of open heath country, but soon began to ascend the mountain range which divides the Qellibrand and Freestone Rivers, or, as it is called on the map, Lardner’s Creek, but it is >s large as the Gellibrand. After crossing the Freestone, I went through i very large belt of wattle sapings of an immense height, then through a dense forest of messmate. Some of these trees are of an enormous size at the base. 1 measured one, and Found it to be 48ft in circumference. On the course we are steering now (S. 70deg W.) is a forest of green gumUees—l don’t know what name to call diem. They have brown woolly butts <p to about 15fc in height; the rest of Pxora is white. They are not large in girth, but they grow to an immense height. I had to fall one, but it is far I from being as tall as many others about i here. It is sft in diameter, 7ft from base, 205 ft in length, and 102 ft to the iir.sb limb. The peculiarity of these trees is that the branches do not spread outj they grow almost perpendicular. Mountain ash, not more than sin in diameter, grows to from 50ft to 60ft in height, and 30ft to 40ft without a branch, and is as strong as gun bands. There is also what is called “ stinking box,” a very rich yellow-colored wood, which L believe equal, if not superior, to hickory, and it is the hottest burning wood I have ever seen. There is a stray beech tree here and there, with a few scattered trees of pencil wood. What is called the cutting sword grass grows from three to six feet long; it is louble-eclged, and has teeth like a very tine saw. With this is mixed the tern scrub, about 4ft high. Another specimen of scrub is the coorie-jung, which grows from 10fb to 12ft high. The bark of this is as tough as green hide, and a piece the thickness of whipcord will bear any weight. It would make splendid ropes. Y"ou cannot have the slightest conception of the toil and labor there is in ascending these mountains and descending the gullies and deep ravines. Some of the gullies where you have to go for water are so steep I had to cut steps to climb up with a billy full. They are one thick mass of fern trees of various heights, on the trunks of which grow thousands of beautiful small ferns of various shapes and shades. I enclose you a sample oi one or two. Since > have been here I have not been able t® get a view or look-out anywhere. From the top of the high test mountain we cannot see more than one chain ahead of us in the clearest ground. We are working entirely in the dark. I would very much like bo ivnow whether there is any sunshine in Colac, as we have only seen it twice since the 22cd May. I was once told i story by a Yankee, that on one occasion he had to cut a hole through the timber in the back settlements of America to allow the smoke to, get through the tree-tops, but 1 can assure you we require to do it here in some places. There is not a living animal to be seen here of any description, except * short, thickset sort of dark-brown rat, with a beautiful fur, surpassing in softness and gloss that of the beaver. Neither bears, cats, or oppoaums are titu-e. We have not heard the howl of tie- dingo, but I have seen the 'rack •‘I :v.t CUO; 'XuiS deg. The p,!;■' o- .the |

p. i wfj iu the suit * namin' go-.mud ws,s as > ‘iii’gn a« nn ordinary-sized saucer, with 1 several smaller ones. However, we i have neither seen or heard them. I i have not seen a bird of any description ■ since I have been here, except one little bird, commonly called a tom-tit. He is blind of one eye, and follows us regularly from camp to camp, and comes in the tent at meal times with as much confidence as a pet magpie. Our leader, Mr Short, I can assure you, has a veiy 10 gh ml harassing time of it, eontinually breasting through this confounded everlasting serub trying to cipher out the clearest way, j and to avoid as much as possible those I great barriers of dead timber which lie about in hundreds on the tops of the ranges. Many of them are covered over with an undergrowth of scrub which you cannot see until you come breast on to them. . T , All our animal food is consumer!, except some German sausages, which were sent from Geelong, but you might as well try to masticate a piece of an old frieze coat. Ob„ ye gods, how we lung for the ‘flesh-pots.of bgypt.’ We could almost sell our birthright, not for a mess of pottage, but for a good beefsteak.’' ,