1018 NOTES ON THE FAUNA OF KING's SOUND, 



orders that I can speak with certainty, because it is only of them 

 that the collection is sufficiently extensive to admit of tolerably 

 satisfactory evidence. The country actually collected over by 

 Mr. Froggatt is limited to a few miles round Derby, and 1 am 

 enabled by means of a good geological maj) of the district sent to 

 me by Mr. Fi^oggatt, to give some idea of the character of the 

 country. The coast on the east side of King's Sound is low and 

 swampy, bounded eastwards by " Pindan " sands and gravels, a 

 pliocene formation which extends inlands for upwards of 60 miles, 

 and is backed by limestone ranges of the carboniferous period. 

 Beyond these ranges and from 100 to 150 miles from Derby, the 

 hills are more elevated and consist of metamorphic schists and 

 quartzite, with occasional outbursts of basalt. Along the course 

 of the rivers and i-ivulets falling into the Sound, are wide deposits 

 of alluvium and river gravel, and large patches of a similar 

 alluvium are found spread throughout the " Pindan," which 

 occupies the undulating couLtry lying between the rivers. Through- 

 out the " Pindan," occasional hills of carboniferous sandstone 

 grits and conglomerates crop out. It may be inferred from this 

 that the country for a long way inland from King's Sound is of a 

 dry character, with a far from luxuriant vegetation, and as a 

 necessary result, not very rich in animal life. 



Notwithstanding this the collection of insects is very large and 

 very interesting, and the great preponderance of very minute 

 species bears testimony to the skill and diligence of the collector. 



The unusual numbers of some groups of Coleopterous insects, 

 with the paucity of others, generally the most numerous in other 

 parts of Australia, is certainly the most striking thing about this 

 collection. Out of a total of 334 species of Coleoptera in the 

 collection received a few weeks ago, there are 87 species of 

 Carabidce, or more than J, a most unusual proportion, and of them 

 all but about eight are ground beetles. There are 32 species of 



