lO 



NA TURE 



[July 28, 1892 



the afternoon I left the train at Cooran and took up my quarters 

 in a delightful little wayside inn surrounded by ferns. On 

 going up to the house I detected at once the genuine Lanca- 

 shire dialect, and knew that the owner hailed from within ten 

 miles of Manchester. I was accordingly made welcome, and 

 wandered out to do a little collecting before evening came on. 

 I found myself just on the northern border of the palm scrub 

 which ran in a broad belt of about twenty miles width across 

 the country from east to west, inland from the sea coast. The 

 country was fairly hilly with a few isolated peaks standing out 

 clearly. I was just at the base of one of these— Cooran — and 

 to the south lay two more — Cooroora and Pimparan. South 

 from these again the ridges increased in height, and then the 

 country fell away into the slightly undulating plains which 

 stretched eastwards towards Bribie Island and southwards to 

 Brisbane. Some remarkable peaks, called the Glass Mountains, 

 mark the southern end of the hilly district. 



So far as animals are concerned, I was much disappointed 

 with this palm scrub, but equally delighted with the richness of 

 the vegetation. 



Commencing first near to Cooran, I followed back the 

 lins and "log-rolled," finding a few worms and four land 

 planarians {Rhynchodemus obscurtis), a small, dark-coloured 

 form, and Geoplana cccrulea and vaj-iegata, together with 

 specimens of a very small new white species, to which 

 iJr. Dendy has given the name of G. minor. After long 

 searching I came across Peripatus leuckartii, very dark 

 purple in colour and evidently similar to the typical form 

 and without the curious diamond-shaped markings charac- 

 teristic of the Victorian form. Though searching hard, I only 

 found nine specimens altogether, and all these close to Cooran. 

 Most of my time was spent in this scrub at different parts, and 

 usually in company with George Martin, the son of my Lancashire 

 friends, who helped me very considerably in collecting. The 

 scrub was very thick with vines and prickly lawyers and barristers 

 and supplejack, making progress tedious, and there were compara- 

 tively few logs on the ground. What delighted me most were the 

 ferns. The trunks of the pines and gums were often covered over 

 •with them and with orchids. High up were enormous clumps of 

 the bird-nest iexn{Aspleniufn nidus), and larger ones of the stag- 

 horn {Acrostichum alcicorne). Some of the latter measured fully 

 twelve feet through, and from them hung down lovely pendant 

 fronds of smaller ferns, especially of Poly podium tenellum, which is 

 locally known as the feather fern. On the ground grew various 

 species of Davallia, Adiantum, Pteris, Doodia, Aspidium , Poly- 

 podium, &c. Perhaps the most beautiful of all were the large 

 and delicate fronds of Adiantum formosum. There were appar- 

 ently three forms of palms — species of Ptychosperma, Livistona, 

 and Kentia. The latter is very common, and usually known as 

 the walking-stick palm. In the scrub were great pine trees, and 

 under the bark stripped off' from these, and lying about in large 

 slabs, I expacted to find any number of worms and insects, but 

 was much disappointed. Millipedes and scorpions were there, 

 and two large forms of land shells ; but scarcely an insect to be 

 seen, and not a planarian or peripatus. I got a few new species 

 of earthworms, of which, again, the commonest form was Cryp- 

 todrilus purpureus ; and in rotten logs, which, unfortunately, 

 were few in number, were large forms of cockroaches. The 

 earthworms formed the best part of my collection here, and 

 comprised representatives of five genera — Perichaeta, Megasco- 

 lides (one species, the only one found), Cryptodrilus, Perissogas- 

 ter, and Acanthodrilus. The latter is only recorded, as yet, 

 from Northern Australia, where there are two species, and is 

 characteristic of New Zealand. Perissogaster is peculiarly 

 Australian and has only three species yet known. My specimens 

 were obtained by digging on the banks of a creek at Cooran 

 and were whitish in colour and about i to i\ feet in length. 

 The boys use them for fishing, quite unaware of their scientific 

 value. 



fegjln Queensland, as in Victoria, I could very rarely, indeed, 

 find traces of casts made by worms or of leaves dragged down 

 into the burrows, and it would appear that here, as in Africa, 

 the ants are of more use than the worms as agents in turning 

 over the soil. Under the bark and logs were a few frogs — 

 Pseudophyrne bibronii and coriacea, Crinia signifcra, and a 

 female specimen of Cryptotis hrevis. In certain spots there 

 were great numbers of trap-door spiders. Some of the tubes, 

 which led for about 2-4 inches down into the ground, were an 

 inch in diameter. The top of the tube, with its semi-circular 

 'trapdoor, projects slightly above the surface. 



NO. II 87, VOL. 46] 



One of the most striking features of the scrub were the epi- 

 phytic orchids, of which, owing to its size and large pendant 

 masses of yellow-brown flowers, Cymbidium canaliculattim 

 was the most noticeable. In parts the ground was crimson with 

 the fallen berries of a species of Eugenia : we cut one down 

 about sixty feet high, laden with fruit, which has a tart taste, and 

 from its colour and size has caused the tree to be known as the 

 native cherry. Another Eugenia has a large purple fruit, and 

 is hence known as the native plum. High up, some fifty feet 

 above ground, we saw hanging down clusters of light brown 

 fruit. Luckily there was a hanging vine close at hand, and up 

 this George Martin went like a monkey. The fruit belonged to 

 the tree Dysoxylon rufum, and each was covered over with in- 

 numerable minute stiff" hairs, which pierced the skin in hun- 

 dreds. Other plants we noticed were the wistaria, which here 

 grows wild, Dracaena angustifolia, and one which Baron von 

 Mueller has marked as xz.xe.—Khipogonuin elseyanum. Two 

 dangerous ones are common, one with large bright green leaves 

 and succulent sheathing stalks, which is locally known as the 

 "CongeyBoy" — this is eaten greedily by the native turkeys, 

 but has the effect of making a man's tongue swell to an enormous 

 extent ; the other is the stinging tree, Urtica gigas — the sting 

 of this is extremely painful, and seems to prove fatal to horses, 

 driving them rapidly frantic. 



Close by the base of Mount Cooroora, a beautiful specimen 

 of Macrozamia denisoni in fruit was growing, and on Mount 

 Cooran the rock on the western side was completely overgrown 

 with staghorn and bird-nest ferns and with an orchid. Den- 

 drobium (sp.), with beautiful clusters of delicate white flowers, 

 amongst which trailed Kennedya rubicunda, its bright red blos- 

 soms contrasting strongly with the pure white of the orchids. 



My last day I spent at the Glass Mountains — curious cone- 

 like basaltic structures rising abruptly from almost flat country. 

 The day was oppressively hot, making it no small exertion to 

 even turn over a log, and as the sun went down a heavy storm 

 came up, and from the train I caught my last glimpses of this 

 delightful district lit up by almost incessant flashes of brilliant 

 lightning. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 



The American Journal of Science, July. — The change of heat 

 conductivity on passing isothermally from solid to liquid, by C. 

 Barus. The method employed was a modification of Weber's, 

 who placed a thin, wide, plane-parallel plate or layer of the sub- 

 stance to be examined between and in close contact with two 

 thick plates of copper. The system was first heated so as to be 

 at a given temperature throughout. It was then suddenly and 

 permanently cooled at the lower surface, and the time-rate at 

 which heat travelled from the top plate to the bottom plate, 

 through the iritervening layer, was measured by a thermo-couple. 

 From these data the absolute thermal conductivity of the layer 

 may be' computed, the constants of the system being known. In 

 the experiments discussed, the liquid was thymol, which can be 

 kept either solid or liquid between 0° and 50° C. This was 

 heated above its melting point, and introduced through a central 

 hole in the upper plate ; it was then allowed to cool down until 

 undercooled. The temperature was regulated by enclosing the 

 whole apparatus in a sheet-iron jacket, through which water was 

 kept circulating. The lower plate could be cooled by flushing it 

 with water from below. The difference of temperature of the 

 plates was measured by means of a copper german-silver couple. 

 The liquid was solidified by introducing a crystal through the 

 central hole. The results obtained gave for the absolute conduc- 

 tivity of thymol in g/cs : 



Solid thymol at 12°, /^ = 359 x 10 -" 

 Liquid thymol at 13°, k — 313 x 10 -•* 

 The thermometric conductivity was found to be — 



For solid thymol at 12°, = 1077 x 10 -« 

 For liquid thymol at 13°, =691 x 10 -^ 

 — On polybasite and tennantite from the Mollie Gibson mine in 

 Aspen, Colorado : by S. L. Penfield and Stanley H. Pearce. 

 Large quantities of polybasite or "brittle silver'' have been 

 mined nearly free from gangue, assaying from 10,000 to 16,000 

 ounces of silver to the ton. Tennantite, arsenical tetrahedrite, 

 or "grey copper," was found in smaller quantities, containing 

 about fourteen ounces of silver. The rich ore occurs between a 



