413 



day, with the consequent camel trouble, heightened by the 

 fact that some of the slopes were very steep and riddled with 

 rabbit-burrows, into which the animals fell, and throwing 

 their loads on the steeps, made recovery and replacement 

 heavy work. The camel-pad was hopelessly lost, but we 

 struck some horse tracks, believed to be those of the Mirra 

 Mitta boring party made some months before. The heat 

 was well-nigh unbearable, our water hot, and the attention 

 of myriads of flies almost intolerable. Still we had some com- 

 pensations. At the camp we obtained a large non-venomous 

 snake known as the woma (pi. xxvii., fig. 2), which enabled me 

 to determine its species ; on more than one occasion I found a 

 goana (Varanus) ensconsed in a lateral burrow at the foot of a 

 sandhill, the opening barred by its hard tail, obviously as a 

 protection against enemies. These reptiles were fairly 

 common here, and the sand at the foot of the bushes was 

 often scooped out where the goanas had scratched for food, 

 possibly smaller lizards, of which many were also seen. We 

 had hoped to reach the Kalladeina Bore this day, but the 

 many adverse conditions rendered its attainment impossible. 

 As the next day wore. on it became evident that we had 

 missed the bore, though, as afterwards transpired, by a very 

 short distance indeed. Having seen a well ahead we diverted 

 our train, but on arrival discovered that the well was dry, 

 partly sanded up, and its floor occupied by a white owl sitting 

 upon four eggs. As we had but two gallons of water left, it 

 became necessary to push on as rapidly as possible, our course 

 lying over large flat areas, noteworthy mainly from the fact 

 that the ground was riddled with crab-holes and thickly 

 grown with exasperatingly tenacious and prickly burrs called 

 "Bindieyes," or Bogan fleas. Every flat we crossed had its 

 quota of dead animals ; on one, perhaps 12 acres in extent, 

 we counted over 50 dead bullocks. In the late afternoon we 

 passed a claypan and camped half a mile on the further side. 

 Our first intention on the following morning was to return 

 to the claypan and fill the canteens with the muddy water, 

 but returning from assembling the camels the Afghan told us 

 he had seen plenty of water directly in our course about two 

 miles ahead : we therefore, foolishly, as afterwards transpired, 

 moved off with empty canteens. The camel driver had been 

 deceived by a belt of fog in the early morning, but as we had 

 left the claypan three miles in our rear we decided to push 

 on. This day we passed over sandy plains alternating with 

 stony desert and flanked with flat-topped hills of varying 

 extent, but all on the same level, representing the height of 

 a former land surface. This stony desert or gibber country 

 has sand as a substratum, and the stones, mostly small and 



