THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 153 



kind, as along the open shore all shells are rapidly broken up 

 by the strong surf. 



At the mouth of the river the Caspian tern {^Sterna Caspid) 

 was secured, with its nest, on a sandy knoll, containing three eggs. 



It was too swampy to take the inland track, which was partly 

 Tinder water, and for some miles further the way lay along the 

 coast. In the kelp were a considerable number of forms of 

 Alcyonarians, the most interesting of which has a long stalk 

 attached to some such object as a shell, whilst its distal end is 

 swollen out, and has the polypes arranged longitudinally in 

 rows. The whole, when living, has a lovely cream, or pink, or 

 heliotrope tint. Others, again, of a reddy purple colour, formed 

 masses resembling such a coral as Mceandrina, only devoid of 

 any calcareous skeleton. It is interesting to note this same 

 form of regular lateral budding taking place in members of the 

 closely allied groups of Alcyonaria and Zoantharia. The 

 ordinary sea-pen was abundant, and at times a large, white 

 holothurian was met with. 



Passing over the sa.nd-hills and surmounting a ridge about 

 ■one hundred feet high, the country is open, and in many parts 

 grass-covered, and appears easily capable of cultivation. Our 

 camp for the night was on the top of a high hill overlooking 

 Sea Elephant Bay. Inland lay a lagoon surrounded by dense 

 swamp ti-tree ; immediately beneath us v/as a small creek of 

 beautiful water, which had carved out for itself a very definite 

 gully, through which, after meandering in the upland plain, it 

 ■crossed the ridge before referred to, and then, running behind 

 the sand-hills, entered the sea. Out to the north-east was 

 Sea Elephant Island, which, together with the bay, owes its 

 name to the former prevalence of these animals, though the 

 only trace we could discover of them lay in one ancient, battered 

 skull. This island, though very small, is now the home of 

 cormorants, seagulls, and mutton-birds, all of which have their 

 rookeries upon it, and afford a plentiful supply of guano, which 

 it was once, though unsuccessfully, attempted to work. To the 

 south lay Eraser River and a dense forest of blue-gum and 

 blackwood, though our time was too short to allow us to pene- 

 trate this almost impenetrable district, much though we should 

 have liked to have done so, and well though it would doubtless 

 have repaid us. All that we could do was to divide ourselves 

 into small parties — some to go inland, some to go south across 

 Eraser River into the woods, and some to go further south still, 

 to the Wall. Near Eraser River we caught four Echidnas, 

 interesting as being the hairy, Tasmanian variety {E. setosa), 

 and not the Victorian form. These creatures — half reptilian, 

 half mammal — are, perhaps, the most interesting amongst the 

 many connecting links which the work of the century 

 has revealed to us. They have a wonderful power of 

 burrowing, first sticking their long, pointed snout down into the 



