12 



of the party, wlio was renowned for heavy breathing. The noise 

 at times that issued from his tent would make one imagine a 

 water hog had invaded the camp! Night birds gave forth their 

 lonely calls. The boobcok owl was heard in the big timber calling 

 to his mate with the familar "mopoke!" "mopoke!" The weird 

 and plaintive whistle of the stone plover, or curlew, as he dwelt 

 upon the last note of his call, was merged into the rest of the 

 sound. A great chorus of frogs kept a grand concert going with 

 immense zest through the livelong night. The occasional thud or 

 breaking of a stick close by in the scrub betrayed the jumping 

 gait of some marsupial, but even these sounds soon seemed further 

 and further awaj- as we gently slid into the Land of Dreams. 

 Just as the silvery light of the coming day becomes perceptible 

 in the eastern sky (long before Old Sol paints that point of th'; 

 compass with his fiery tongues of light), the harsh, "Quack-quack" 

 of the watlebird is heard in exery tree as immense numbers of 

 these birds awake into activity. Soon afterwards the reveille 

 arouses the camp into life; and lightly clad forms are seen in 

 the early morning liglit, issuing from the tents with towels in hand 

 on their way to the creek. And so another day begins. 



—Off to Coffin's Bay.— 



On Friday. October 8, a party consisting of Dr. Home (V.), Dr. 

 Augove (S.A.). Messrs. Leach, M.Sc, Barrett, and BaiT (V.), Mr. 

 Robert Hall, I\R.f^. (T.), and Mr. Edquist (S.A.), left the main 

 camp for a flying visit to Coffin's Bay, on the west coast. The 

 geologists of the part.v were anxious to explore an island in Coffin's 

 Bay, where interesting fossil remains were supposed to have 

 been discovered while prospecting for phosphates. It was a warm 

 day. and the sun was well overhead before the little band of 

 scientists were under way in a backblocker's vehicle, drawn by 

 horses whose education was not quite so complete as that of the 

 party who sat behind them. Soon a mallee brumby had the party 

 in trouble. Splintered mallee swingbars, combined with hair and 

 flesh, were flying around. This caper, as a rule, does not last 

 long, and when the brumbies had quietened do^-n, a piece or two 

 of good old mallee, with a few feet of cocky's friend (fencing wire), 

 soon put tilings to riglits, and the flying column was again on 

 the way. 



— Through the jNIallee Country. — 

 The track led througn a dense mass of mallee, and nothing but 

 this stunted eucalyptus was to be seen on either hand. When a 

 ridge was crossed the party could see for miles one unbroken sea, 

 rising and falling like billows, according to the undulating nature 

 of the ground on which it grows. Amid this dense bush and soli- 

 tude the scrub wren pours forth its melodious song, and that 



