240 THE PORT DARWIN DISTRICT 



and I, on my part, was very glad to escape attentions that 

 may not have been of a very pleasant kind. 



Unable to proceed far on that day I was compelled to 

 pass the night at no great distance from my sable neigh- 

 bours, whose triumphant and joyous shouts I could hear 

 at intervals throughout the night. I found a dry spot on 

 which to hobble my horse ; and as I was pretty confident 

 that the blacks were too well occupied with their own 

 concerns to trouble about me, I ventured to light a fire, as 

 there was a very chilly wind blowing ; this wind, however, 

 rapidly dried the land, and although there was a shower 

 or two of rain the next day, I found far less difficulty in 

 making my way across the country. 



On the slight elevation of ground which I selected for 

 my resting-place on this night, I shot a large water- 

 monitor of the species Varanus salvator^ called iguana 

 by the Colonists. It was fully seven feet long, of which 

 more than four must be allotted to the tail ; and the colour 

 was very dark, almost black, with slight stripings of dirty 

 white. The monitors of this species are common in this 

 district, and are also found in the intermediate country as 

 far south as Gascoyne River ; but I did not see or hear of 

 them in the Champion Bay and Swan River districts. 

 Further south the lizard, called an iguana (or " go-an-na," 

 as the people will insist on calling it), is a much smaller 

 creature. 



But there is a " bob-tailed goanna," in the Champion 

 Bay region which I also found in this Port Darwin dis- 

 trict. This curious lizard is the stump-tailed lizard 

 {Trachysaurus rugosus), one of the most curious-looking 

 creatures on the continent. It is about fifteen inches long, 

 with a remarkable flattened projection for a tail — as un- 

 tail-like an appendage as it is possible to imagine. The 

 whole animal, when squatting quiescent, would never be 

 taken to be a thing of life ; it looks rather like an 

 elongated pine-cone. In habits the stump-tail is one of 

 the most inanimate and sluggish of lizards. Run it cannot, 

 and unless frightened and trying to escape, its pace 

 is never greater than a lethargic crawl. Like other 



