THE COUNTRY. 129 



of Cape York^ is the occurrence of a palm^ not 

 hitherto mentioned as Australian. It is the Caryota 

 urens (found also in India and the Indian archi- 

 pelago)^ one of the noblest of the famil}^^ combining* 

 the foliage of the tree-fern with a trunk a foot in 

 diameter^ and sixty in heig-ht. It is found in the 

 dense brushes along* with three other palms^ 

 Seaforthiay Corypka, and Calamus, Another very 

 striking* tree^ not found elscAvhere by us^ is the fine 

 Wormia alata^ abundant on the margin of the 

 brushes^ where it is very conspicuous from its large 

 3^ellow blossoms^ handsome dark-green foliage^ and 

 ragg'ed^ papery bark of a red colour. 



One day I explored some caves in the sandstone 

 cliiFs at Port Albany in quest of bats^ and was 

 fortunate enough to get quite a new Illiinolophus or 

 horse-shoe bat. In one of the caves^ which only 

 admitted of entry on the hands and knees^ these 

 bats were so numerous_, and in such large clusters^ 

 that I secured no less than eleven at one time^ by 

 using both hands. Small kangaroos appeared to 

 be plentiful enough^ but we were not so fortunate as 

 to shoot one. The natives one day brought down to 

 us a live opossum^ quite tame^ and very gentle ; this 

 turned out to be new_, and has since been described 

 by Mr. Gould under the name of Pseudocheirus 

 nudicaudatus. 



In the brushes the sportsman may find the mega- 

 podius^ brush-turkey^ and white pigeon^ and in the 

 forest Hocks of white cockatoos^ and various parrots 



VOL. I. K 



