THK VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



Some notes on camel travelling may be interesting. Of course 

 the great advantage of camels is that they can go for so long 

 without water, whilst carrying a supply of this for the travellers. A 

 record of 24 days without water is, I believe, the longest one in 

 Australia. The camels always travel in single file, tied together 

 by a string from the tail of one to the nose of the one following, 

 and so on. An ordinary loading camel only travels about 

 three miles an hour, but a good, well-lrained riding camel 

 is just as pleasant to ride as a good riding horse. In regard to 

 the comfort of riding there is just as much difference between 

 camels as between horses. The camel moves both legs on the 

 one side at the same time, which gives a pleasant ambling motion, 

 and gets along at a rate of about ten miles an hour. A camel 

 when angry is very vicious, and has a happy knack of reserving 

 its breakfast for you, and spitting this out when you come within 

 range. It also contrives by some means or another to force air 

 in behind the uvula so as to form a bladder, which conies out at 

 the side of the mouth. The beast makes a bubbling sound, while 

 the bladder grows larger and larger until it is as big as its head, 

 after which it is gradually withdrawn. 



Regarding the physical features of the central area of the Con- 

 tinent, the following are briefly the more important ones. North 

 from Adelaide there runs a range of hills reaching in parts an 

 elevation of nearly 3,000 feet. Its course is at first parallel to the 

 eastern shore of the Spencer Gulf. From the head of this it is 

 continued northwards as the Flinders Range, and then branches 

 off to the north-west, separating the basin of Lake Torrens from 

 that of Lake Eyre, The railway crosses this range into the Lake 

 Eyre basin, running along close to the southernmost point of the 

 lake, where it is actually 39 feet below sea level. From this 

 point the land gradually rises until in the centre there is a plateau 

 2,000 feet high, forming the higher steppes. Across this plateau 

 run the Macdonnell Ranges, which have the form of a series of 

 parallel, rugged, mainly quartzite, ridges, and stretch almost due 

 east and west for between 300 and 400 miles. The rivers which 

 drain southwards from them into Lake Eyre actually take their 

 rise to the north of the ranges, and cut their way through them by 

 means of deep and often narrow gorges, which afford the only 

 means of traversing the ranges. The highest peaks have an 

 elevation of slightly under 5.000 feet above sea level. To the 

 south-west of these central ranges lies a smaller basin centering 

 in Lake Amadeus. North of the Macdonnells is the Burt Plain. 

 To the north of this again the country is crossed here and there 

 by unimportant ranges, but, on the whole, gradually falls from an 

 elevation of 1,800 feet to one of 700 feet at Powell Creek. 

 Approaching the coast it once more rises, but only slightly, as the 

 highest point of the watershed, where we crossed it on our way 



