EYRE'S PENINSULA 133 



with teeth attached, of a Diprotodon. Complete 

 skeletons of this extinct giant marsupial were dis- 

 covered some years ago, embedded in the mud of a 

 morass, in South Australia. 



Mount Button Bay was reached before noon, and 

 we devoted an hour to rambling in the vicinity of the 

 jetty, where a brig was discharging cargo. Among 

 the rocks we found numbers of Stump-tailed Lizards 

 [Trackysaurus ruyosus], sluggish reptiles, which were 



STUMP - TAILED LIZARD. 



easily captured. Its long, thick body, short, flattened 

 tail, and stumpy limbs indicate that this lizard was 

 not designed by nature for activity; but it is a brave 

 little creature, and faces a foe with open mouth. Like 

 members of the genus Tiliqua, the Stump-tailed 

 Lizard frequently attacks and kills snakes. It is 

 not, perhaps, such a hero as Kipling's Rikki-tikki- 

 tavi, the Mongoose, but once its jaws close on the 

 flesh of a serpent, it clings with bulldog tenacity till 

 one or other of the combatants dies. 



Nothing of special interest was seen during the 

 drive from the place of lizards to Horse Peninsula. 

 A narrow point of land jutting into Port Douglas, 

 the Peninsula forms portion of a sheep run; long 



