I""*'] O'Donohue, Wanderings on the Murray Flood-Plain. 51 



dozen Pelicans among a flock of Black Swan, we bore away 

 south along the dry bed of Chalka Creek, whose banks were 

 heavily timbered with Red Box and Red Gum. As we progressed 

 Crested Pigeons were flushed in scores from the bare and 

 fissured flood-plain, and many Emu were descried at a distance. 

 In due course the dry and extensive bed of Lake Lockie was 

 reached. Here, as on other lake-beds traversed, the abundance 

 of mussel shells, and the bleached integuments of crustaceans, 

 were noticeable. By the side of every stick that projected from 

 the bed of the lake a small pile of broken shells was to be 

 discerned, where, as the water shallowed under the influence 

 of evaporation, the Cormorants, and possibly other birds — for 

 we noted a Collared Crow-Shrike with a shell in its beak — 

 resorted, and, fracturing one or both valves of the mussel, 

 devoured the contents. Numerous plano-concave lime 

 concretions, of sizes ranging from a threepenny piece to a 

 halfpenny, were to be found at such spots. According to the 

 belief entertained by some, these are contained in the crustaceans 

 consumed by the Cormorants, which subsequently pass them 

 unaltered ; by others they are believed to be the result of a 

 physiological process in the birds' intestines. If the former 

 theory be correct, one should expect to find the concretions 

 amid the broken chitinous integuments that are scattered 

 thickly over the lake-beds, as well as at the places resorted to 

 by the Cormorants. 



At times on the journey we quitted the flood-plain, with its 

 monotonous tangle of lignum bushes, and ascended the sand- 

 dunes on our right to more closely examine the old kitchen 

 middens of the aborigines. On the crests and sides of the 

 dunes vast numbers of aged, weathered, and prostrate trees 

 of Acacia salicina were to be discerned. All bore the appear- 

 ance of a contemporaneous cessation of vitality that had 

 ensued many years ago, and was not occasioned by fire. No 

 seedlings were seen, and none were noted in any of our many 

 .Mid extensive rambles in the neighbourhood of Lake Mournpoul. 

 Of the half-score, or thereabouts, of living trees met with 

 during our peregrinations, to only two could the terms healthy 

 ;md vigorous be justly applied. It would seem, in the locality 

 under review, at all events, that the Willow Acacia, either 

 from some natural cause or lack of adaptability, is doomed to 

 extinction at a not very remote date. 



Lake Hattah was reached about 11 o'clock. Owing to the 

 want o| lain, to extensive evaporation induced by months of 

 torrid beat, and to the continuous pumping operations of the 

 Railway Departmenl — the engines at Hattah railway station, 

 about four miles distant, are supplied with water from the 

 lake we found the lake-bid comparatively dry. On the small 



