148 KING GEORGES SOUND 



omnivorous bird, and will devour rats, lizards, and any 

 small creatures generally that come in its way. 



Taking King George's Sound as a typical district of 

 the south-west part of Australia, we notice that the change 

 of flora and fauna which takes place there forms the first 

 decided demarcation between the two sides of the continent. 

 I exclude the central desert, which may be a sub-district, 

 but is intruded on, to a great extent, by types from both 

 sides which gradually die out, rather than meet, as they 

 approach the centre of the continent. There is some co- 

 mingling and overlapping of typical families, and some 

 universally distributed species as I have already said, but 

 taking into consideration certain features, as the great 

 compactness of the country, and the absence of many of 

 the usual barriers to the migrations of plants and animals, 

 Australia maintains its reputation for eccentricity in its 

 many sharply drawn limits of species. 



So far as I know, the country lying between Spencer's 

 Gulf (South Australia) and King George's Sound is a 

 desert without a single typical tree or animal, and probably 

 without many plants or animals of any kind. There are 

 certainly no great forests, or other prominent and life- 

 influencing features in that vast region, which is at least 

 seven hundred miles wide, and of unknown depth inland. 

 It is probably the most desert part of Australia, the fact 

 that there is no stream, not even a brook of the smallest 

 size, in such a great length of coast as that surrounding 

 the Great Bight, is sufficiently indicative of the aridity of 

 the back country. 



But when we reach King George's Sound we light, at 

 once, on a flora that differs markedly from that of Victoria, 

 and the known country to the west of it — that is the colony 

 of South Australia. And the fauna, also, greatly differs, 

 but not quite in so marked a degree as the flora. We 

 must get away from the settlements to note this fully. 



Albany, one of the most beautiful and important towns 

 of Western Australia, and destined to be, if it is not 

 already, one of the most frequented ports of call on the 

 continent, is decidedly English in appearance. Here are 



