Page:Sea and River-side Rambles in Victoria.djvu/130

111  or "pigs feces," the green Correa or native Fuschia, the russet flowered Pomaderris, and many others. Numerous are the tributaries to the stream in its course,—Muston's Creek, the Salt Creek from Lake Bolac, then about ten miles from the sea, Black's River or Emu Creek, and further on, Cudgee or Brucknall's Creek: these with freshwater springs supply the current flow. A little lower down we come to the Falls of the Hopkins, whose limpid waters sparkle in the sun, and a few miles further still, to the Allansford Bridge, past which the stream glides musically along, like the murmur of a pebbly brook in the old country, through rich black soil, well stocked with flowers, and tenanted by industrious hard-working men. On the margin of another waterfall, about a mile onward, up to which the tide flows from the sea, is Tooram, the station of John M. Allan, Esq., one of the earliest settlers in the district, thickly surrounded by Eucalypti, Cherrytrees, Box and Light wood, old and young, such as we may travel a long distance without again seeing in such luxuriance.

Nor are these richly foliaged trees, quiet as they seem to us now, destitute of animal life; come you at nightfall, and under the guidance of one of the many Natives who invariably camp here, watch the merry gambols of the Flying Squirrels and Opossums, leaping from branch to branch; listen to the heavy munching of the Wombat, who is feeding timidly on the grass which surrounds his burrow, into which, if he observes us, he hastens with a celerity which his looks belie; the slothful Koala, or Native Bear too, comes forth to feast on the young leaves of the Gumtree, and the long-