f the first described, another mass, also isolated, overlooking that
variegated land of wood and plain. To the S. E. of all these, the peaks
of a very distant range were just visible. I determined to name the whole
country Fitzroy Downs, and to identify it, I gave the name of the Grafton
Range to the fine mass in the midst of it. In hopes of obtaining an
elevated view over the country to the westward, I endeavoured to ascend
the northern summit of Mount Abundance, but although the surface to near
the top was tolerably smooth, and the bush open, I was met there by
rugged rocks, and a scrub of thorny bushes so formidable as to tear
leathern overalls, and even my nose. After various attempts, I found I
was working round a rocky hollow, somewhat resembling a crater, although
the rock did not appear to be volcanic. The trees and bushes there were
different from others in the immediate vicinity, and, to me, seemed
chiefly new. It is, indeed, rather a curious circumstance, but by no
means uncommon, that the vegetation on such isolated summits in
Australia, is peculiar and different from that of the country around
them. Trees of a very droll form chiefly drew my attention here. The
trunk bulged out in the middle like a barrel, to nearly twice the
diameter at the ground, or of that at the first springing of the branches
above. These were small in proportion to their great girth, and the whole
tree looked very odd. These trees were all so alike in general form that
I was convinced this was their character, and not a LUSUS NATUROE. [A
still more remarkable specimen of this tree was found by Mr. Kennedy in
the apex of a basaltic peak, in the kind of gap of the range through
which we passed on the 15th of May, and of which he made the accompanying
drawing.]

These trees grew here only in that almost inaccessible, crater-like
hollow, which had impeded me in my attempt to reach the summit.[*]
Leaving the horses, however, I scrambled through the briars and up the
rocks to the summit, but found it, after all this trouble, too thickly
covered with scrub to afford me the desired view to the westward, even
after I had ascended a tree on the edge of the broad and level plateau,
so thickly covered with bushes. On returning and descending eastward
towards the open country, I found a much more practicable way down than
that by which I had ascended. Returning to the valley of the Cogoon, I
passed between the two summits, and found a good open pa