22 IIOUN EXPEDITION — NARKATIVE. 



tH)iuliliiiii it ()C(.-uj)iL'8 a cavity just big cuougli fur tlic body and siiuply goes to 

 sleep. 



Wiieii, witli the aid uf a native, we cut it out of its hiding place the animal at 

 lirst naiiained perfectly still with its lower eyelid completely drawn over the eye 

 giving it the appearance of being blind, which indeed the blacks assured us that it 

 was. It is said that a black fellow when travelling ovei* such country as this 

 where in tin)es of drought there is not ;i drtip of water visible will use these frogs 

 as a water supply. A native will tell you at once where to dig for a frog, being 

 guided by faint tracks often indistinguishable to the unpractised eye of the white 

 man. IJe will also obtain water frum the roots of certain malice gums and other 

 trees, such as the llakeas and Casuarinas. A white man may search in vain for 

 such water supplies but a black fellow will know by instinct where to find them. 



The snails protect themselves if they have uo natural operculum by Idling up 

 the mouth of the shell with a pellet of hard earth, and in the case of one species, 

 Isidorella {Bii/i/ii/s) newcoJiiln, one of the most abundant of the fresh water snails, 

 which I dug out from the earth at the base of a gum tree above the water level of 

 the quickly evaporating pool, I found that the earth seemed to have been specially 

 prepared and finely ground down by pa.ssing through the alimentary canal. The 

 plug thus formed had the colour and consistency uf hard chocolate and was very 

 diflerent in appearance from the surrounding earth. 



As to the water beetle {Hydropliilus albipes) this seems to be the hardiest 

 animal of all, it simply goes down into the earth and there it remains in a crack 

 making no special burrow or provision for itself. How long it can remain alive in 

 this state is not known, but the blacks assured me that it would come out alive 

 when the rains came. 



This brief account will serve to give an outline of the natural history of a 

 typical Australian clay-pan and water-hole, the animals living in which must adapt 

 themselves to alternate conditions of drought and flood often recurring at irregular 

 intervals of time. 



All along our course from Oodnadatta to Charlotte Waters the country was 

 in a miserable condition with water-holes rapidly drying up, whilst the dead and 

 dried up carcasses of cattle which had crept under the shelter of a mulga tree to 

 ilie were often seen, and showed how severe had been the drought before the last 

 rainfall. 



Our seventh night out from Oodnadatta we camped beside a water-pool on tlie 

 Adminga Creek, which was bordered for the main part by a belt of the stinking 



