30 HORN EXPEDITION — NARRATIVE. 



A pnrmaiiont watei' supply is also hoins; o))tainofl tVoni artesian boi'es. By 

 the railway side at Coward Springs one of these has been sunk, and from its 

 mouth the water rises to a heii,dit of some fifteen feet. Another has ])een sunk at 

 Oodnadatta and a tliird is now being sunk ))y the .side of the Hamilton, some 

 si.xty miles north of Oodnadatta ; when this is complete the line will be continued 

 northwards by one in the neighbcnirhood of Charlotte Waters. For stock purposes 

 these wells will be of the greatest service. The grass which thickly clothes the 

 loam plains of the centre during a good season is apparently peculiarly well 

 adapted for stock feeding, and is readily eaten ev(m when it appears to be 

 perfectly di'ied up, but the great difficulty is the entire absence perhaps for months 

 at a time of surface water, so that these wells will .serve as centres from which 

 cattle can wor-k back over wide ai'eas of country which would otherwise l)e 

 incapable of carrying them during dry seasons. 



On our way we had halted ))y the side of a dry clay-pan and had ol)tained 

 several specimens of the water-holding frog {Chirolcptes pintyccphaliis) a^stivating in 

 its burrow at the base of a Chenopodiuni shrub. 



By the Goyder we spelled for a day, anrl were glad of the opportunity to do 

 so as our specimens needed careful packing, and we had also the opportunity of a 

 few hours collecting. The banks of the stream were bordered about three miles 

 away from our camp by low clill's of unconformably stratified sandstone, from the 

 top of which we obt;iined an extensive view over the scrub in all directions. To 

 the south-east lay the terraced Mount Daniel ranges and to the north-west Mount 

 Townscnd, a single, fiat-topped hill with a well-marked outlim-, broke the otherwise 

 level line of Mulga scrub stretching away to the horizon. 



Along the sandy bed of the i-iver tine red-gums {Eucalyptus rostrafa) were 

 growing as usual, and here and there were patches of Porcupine grass. Setting 

 tire to heaps of debris, we dislodged numerous lizarxls, amongst which the most 

 interesting was the very agile, thin-bodied PJiyslgnntlius /o>igirosfris. The only 

 other representative of this genus in Australia is found in the well-watered parts 

 of Eastern Australia, from Queensland in the north to the very south of Victoria. 

 In these coastal districts it is semi-aquatic in its habits, spending its time on logs 

 in and by the water side, from which, when disturbed, it rapidly dives. It is 

 perhaps worth noticing that this genus is represented in the steppe fauna, and 

 that in the central area it is met with along the dry creek beds, which may be 

 taken as indicating that at one time, like its close ally, P. lesuciirii, it also was 

 semi-aquatic in its habits, but that in course of time it has been able to accom- 



