The Victorian naturalist . oria Range inthe Grampians. Its walls rise sheer forhundreds of feet. It towers above theHoneysuckle, Deep, Hut, and Cultiv-ations Creeks, and broods over theBilliwing area, in which such a largenumber of aboriginal paintings siteshave been discovered. An anthropolo-gist, Mr. A. Massola, who has re-corded and studied most of thesenew aboriginal shelters found in thepast twelve years, has suggested thatthis locality was sacred to the lizardtotem, the Burti Ngan-ap of theBuandik people and was chosenbecause of the towering and dis-tinguishing pile of Castle Rock.(Victo
The Victorian naturalist . oria Range inthe Grampians. Its walls rise sheer forhundreds of feet. It towers above theHoneysuckle, Deep, Hut, and Cultiv-ations Creeks, and broods over theBilliwing area, in which such a largenumber of aboriginal paintings siteshave been discovered. An anthropolo-gist, Mr. A. Massola, who has re-corded and studied most of thesenew aboriginal shelters found in thepast twelve years, has suggested thatthis locality was sacred to the lizardtotem, the Burti Ngan-ap of theBuandik people and was chosenbecause of the towering and dis-tinguishing pile of Castle Rock.(Victorian Naturalist, Volume 75,number 5.) The huge eastern wall of Castle Rockis split from top to bottom. It is justpossible to edge your way along thenarrow erratic course of this fissure,for about forty yards, to enter aravine deep in the heart of the moun-tain. This ravine, some hundreds of feetdeep, and nowhere more than a fewyards wide at the bottom, contains oneof the most remarkable plant com-munities in the It is a garden of ferns. The damprock walls and the trunks of the SoftTree-ferns are green with the daintyfronds of no less than four species ofFilmy-ferns; only one, the CommonFilmy-fern, is found elsewhere in theGrampians. Filmy-ferns, whose delic-ately soft and translucent fronds arebut a single cell thick, have been aptlydescribed as the fairies of the fernworld. Finger Fern is another luxuriantspecies not found elsewhere in thesemountains. Spleenworts, Shield-ferns,Bats-wing Fern, Necklace Fern and
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdec, booksubjectnaturalhistory, bookyear1884
