3o6 



NA TURE 



[July 28, 1892 



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 

 flashing and twinkling lights prettily reflected in the water and 

 with a very second-rate refreshment-room. Afer 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 five 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 about, 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 northwards into Queensland. The 

 original name of this border station was Wallangarra, but un- 

 fortunately this is now being changed to Jennings. It is a 

 pity to lose the old native names and to substitute for them 

 such ugly ones. One would have thought that a more effective 

 plan of perpetuating the memory of legislators might have been 

 devised. 



Small though the railway is, it is very comfortable and well 

 managed, and all officials uniformly courteous. The carriages 

 are like the insides of omnibuses, with a broad seat all round the 

 windows. On express trains the last car is always for smokers, 

 and has a little balcony on which you can sit out in the open 

 air right at the end of the train, and hence shielded from wind 

 and dust. This is a most excellent arrangement. From Wal- 

 langarra the train runs to Warwick, and then, across the uplands 

 forming the Darling Downs with their wonderfully rich dark-red 

 soil, on to Toowoomba. Here the line turns nearly due east and 

 begins to climb gradually to the top of the Dividing Range close 

 to the eastern escarpment of which Toowoomba lies. Suddenly 

 you turn a corner, the upland country ends abruptly, and the 

 train zig-zags rapidly down the face of the lofty escarpment which 

 rises directly from the flat coastal district. The sun was setting 

 just as we reached the crest, and in the brief twilight we had 

 magnificent glimpses of the distant plains with the abrupt hill 

 sides and deep gorges in the foreground. Close upon midnight 

 Brisbane is reached. 



A slight difficulty arose in Brisbane with regard to my small 

 amount of collecting material, but on learning that it was simply 

 intended for scientific purposes, the Customs officials at once 

 courteously saved me all trouble by allowing it to enter free of 

 duty. In fact my experience in Queensland was that I met with 

 the greatest courtesy from all officials, and the greatest kindness 

 from such friends and strangers as it was my good fortune to be 

 brought into contact with — an experience common, I believe, to 

 all visitors to the Northern colony. 



From Brisbane the line is now continued through Mary- 

 borough on to Bundaberg at the mouth of the Burnett River. 



About seventy-five miles north of Brisbane the vegetation 

 changes almost suddenly, and the line runs across a belt of 

 country, perhaps twenty miles wide, of a semi-tropical descrip- 

 tion. To this we will return presently ; suffice it to say at present 

 that the traveller finds himself suddenly surrounded by palms 

 and pines and fig trees, and sees all the tree trunks covered with 

 epiphytic ferns — with great masses especially of staghorn and 

 bird-nest ferns, and with orchids from which hang down long 

 clusters of yellow blossom. 



This belt of vegetation stops as suddenly as it began some few 

 miles south of Gympie — a well-known gold-mining town, which 

 lies by the side of the Mary River, and where I had been told 

 that Ceratodus was to be had in abundance. Here I determined 

 to stay, and began at once to make inquiries. To my disappoint- 

 ment I found that no one at the hotel knew anything about the 

 animal, but I wandered forth in quest of information. The river 

 itself was dirty with the washings from the mines, and looked 

 anything but promising ; however, I made for some miserable 

 huts on the outskirts occupied by Chinese, and after a little 

 trouble found a fisherman amongst them. This individual was 

 decidedly apathetic, but after some time said that he might or 

 might not be able to catch me a few. Wandering along by the 

 river I began to feel rather as if I were searching for a needle in 

 a haystack. However, I learnt that the fish certainly were to be 

 caught, though some few miles away, but that there was no chance 

 whatever of getting assistance from any blacks, simply because 

 there were not any in the neighbourhood, and at that time 

 I thought their assistance indispensable. It was late in the 



afternoon and I wandered on by the river searching for plan- 

 arians and earthworms. Amongst the former I secured two 

 specimens of a beautiful new species, to which Dr. Dendy has 

 given the name of Geoplana regina, and also specimens of the 

 almost cosmopolitan form, Bipalium kewense, and of Geoplana 

 ccerulea, a form common in New South Wales, rare in Victoria, 

 and very abundant indeed in Queensland. This was, I believe, 

 the first time on which land planarians had been collected in 

 Queensland — not that there was any difficulty in finding them, 

 but that no one had taken the trouble to look before. Amongst 

 earthworms, I collected for the first time for myself a true peri- 

 chsete — that is, one in which the little setae, or bristles, form a 

 complete circle round each segment of the body. In all our 

 Victorian forms, without exception, there is a break in the mid- 

 dorsal and ventral lines where the setse are absent. True peri- 

 chsetes do not appear to come further south than the north of 

 New South Wales. Under the logs also were specimens of a 

 common Queensland worm, Cryftodrilus purpureus ; of a new 

 species of perichaete worm, P. gympiana ; together with three 

 species of frogs — Pstudophryne bibronii, P. australis, and 

 Limnodynastes tasmaniensis. 



During the evening I had the opportunity of talking to one or 

 two who were well acquainted with the country, and was strongly 

 advised to go on without delay to the Burnett River. I deter- 

 mined that this would be the wisest course to adopt, and 

 accordingly packed up next morning, and after an hour or two's 

 stroll round Gympie, during which I did a large amount of log- 

 rolling with but scanty success, owing to the extreme dryness of 

 the country, once more took train northwards towards Mary- 

 borough. I spent the night at a little wayside inn, where con- 

 siderable surprise was evinced at my putting in an appearance ; 

 however, a wandering lascar turned up, so that I was more or 

 less kept in countenance, and together we had tea in what was 

 presumably a combination kitchen and scullery. During two or 

 three hours' collecting I met with nothing but gum trees, endless 

 ants and scorpions, a few stray specimens of Geoplana ccerulea, 

 and one or two lizards and frogs. I somehow had the idea that 

 north of Brisbane everything would be at least semi-tropical, and 

 could not at first help feeling disappointed to find myself, except 

 in the small district mentioned before, surrounded by little else 

 but gum trees, without a trace of a palm or of anything which 

 looked at all tropical. Eastern Gippsland was really richer in 

 vegetation and more varied in form of animal life than the 

 part of Queensland in which I spent most of my time. In fact, 

 so far as my experience yet goes, Gippsland, as a general 

 collecting ground, would be very hard to beat. 



Early in the morning I started in a mixed train along a branch 

 line leading inland for some fifty miles, till it stopped apparently 

 nowhere in special, and not far from a fine mountainous bluff. 

 The station is called Biggenden, and here we found coaches 

 waiting for us. A Queensland coachdriver is a most marvellous 

 man, both in the way in which he accepts with almost pleasure 

 any amount of luggage, and in the way in which he stows it all 

 on board. From Biggenden came a hot ride of about forty miles 

 across uninteresting country. The only township we passed was 

 a small place known as " The Shamrock," not far from the gold- 

 field of Paradise. After changing horses we started off again, 

 seeing nothing but gum trees and a few emus and kangaroos. 

 Among the gums were what are locally known as blood gums, 

 whose light-coloured trunks are covered with reddish blotches, 

 due to the exhalation of kino ; woollybutts, which for perhaps 

 ten feet above the ground have the trunk somewhat like that of 

 a stringybark, and above this are quite smooth and whitish ; and 

 a form of gum called brigalow. This grows in clumps, and 

 differs from all the others in having its foliage comparatively 

 dense, so that it affords a good deal of shade. The cattle 

 congregate in the shade, and these dark patches give a curious 

 and characteristic appearance to the landscape. Every now 

 and then we came across a few birds, known as squat pigeons. 

 These have the habit of squatting on the ground when 

 approached, and, being of a brownish colour, are hard to see. 

 Sometimes they can be knocked over by the whip of an experi- 

 enced driver. 



Late in the afternoon we mounted a slight ridge and came 

 down through a gap into the wide Burnett Valley. On either 

 side of this rise low hills, and through the middle flows the 

 river with a broad channel, occupied chiefly — except during the 

 flood season — by long, broad stretches of sand. A short ride 

 brought us to Gayndah, a long, straggling township on the 

 river banks, and here I took up my quarters in the comfortable 



NO. II 87, VOL. 46] 



