16 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



A TRIP TO QUEENSLAND IN SEARCH OF 



CERATODUS. 



By Professor W. Baldwin Spencer. 



(Read before the Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria, 1 4th 



March, 189 2 J 



My main object in going to Queensland was to procure if 

 possible the eggs of Ceratodus and the creature itself; secondly, 

 I wanted to collect earthworms ; and, thirdly, to see the country. 

 In my main object I was quite unsuccessful, for the simple reason 

 that this year Ceratodus did not lay its eggs till late on in No- 

 vember — two full months later than the time recorded by the 

 only observer who had up till then procured them. University 

 work forced me to return, not by any means empty-handed, but 

 without the one thing which had tempted me to go north. 



To save time, and avoid unpleasantness also, I went by train. 

 It is a long weary ride across New South Wales, especially in 

 warm weather. Unfortunately I left Sydney by the northern 

 mail on Friday evening. There were very few carriages and 

 some of what there were were " engaged " for legislators who 

 travelled home free and in ease whilst we who paid for our 

 journey were huddled and crowded together. This discreditable 

 state of affairs seems to be common at the close of each week 

 during the sitting of Parliament in Sydney. 



The journey north leads by the side of the Hawkesbury River, 

 and after passing across the well-known bridge the train skirts the 

 shores of what appears to be a succession of lakes. In reality 

 the winding river, shut irt by wooded hills, expands every now 

 and then into sheets of water each of which in the gathering 

 darkness, seemed to be a little lake. About 1 1 o'clock you 

 find yourself apparently running along through the streets of 

 Newcastle and stretching out eastwards see the long quays and 

 open water leading out to the sea. The whole is brilliant with 

 numberless electric lights, though you have an idea that in day- 

 light coal dust would be a little too prominent. As it is, how- 

 ever, Newcastle is associated in one's mind with a series of flash- 

 ing and twinkling lights prettily reflected in the water and with a 

 very second-rate refreshment room. After Newcastle you settle 

 yourself down as comfortably as possible for a run northwards of 

 400 miles, through the night and greater part of the next day, 

 to the Queensland border. You seem to get gradually more and 

 more out of the world until at 5 o'clock next afternoon the train 

 pulls up at the border station. By that time our number of 

 passengers has been reduced to four. After looking sbout a 

 minute train, which at first sight you take for a toy, is descried at 

 the end of the platform. Further searching shows a very narrow 

 gauge line streaking away through the limestone hills north- 



