HORN EXPEDITION — NARRATIVE. 33 



Steppes, as for example at Ilci.hury, and tlie rocky pools amoiif^'st the I'anges 

 where it and its tributaries take tlieir rise. It Hows in a generally south east 

 diieotion and receives on the east two largo tributaries the Ellery and the TTugh 

 and on the west the Palmer, the Lilla and the Goyder. 



It drains an area which, it is estimated, cannot be less than eighty thousand 

 square miles, and which has, roughly speaking, the form of a triangle, the base of 

 which is formed V)y the main McDonnell Range extending from 132" E. to 134.\° 

 E. A line drawn from either end of this to the nojthern margin of Lake Eyre 

 will enclose the greater part of the Finke Basin. A reference to the map will 

 show that in reality it extends somewhat further out beyond the line forming the 

 south-western boundary of this triangle. 



From the top of the cliff at the base of which we were camped the view was 

 one very characteristic of many parts of Central Australia — that is of th.e 

 Lower Steppes — over which extends the great Upper Cretaceous sandstone plain. 



Just below us the river swept round in a big curve towards the east, its bed 

 was in parts upwards of a quarter of a mile wide and simply a sheet of white sand 

 without a trace of watei-. In the bed itself and forming a fringe to it the red 

 gums [E. 1-ostratci) grew with their white trunks shining brightly in the sunliglit. 

 Beyond them on the land liable to be Hooded during very heavy rains grew the 

 swamp gums or box trees {^E. t/iicroiheca), and behind these was the undulating 

 sandhill country covered with thin scrub with darker looking patches where the 

 Mulga was more dense. 



Three miles to the north of us the river was running from north to south 

 through the Cunningham Gap which pierced a long range of the usual Hat topped 

 hills between two and three hundred feet high, which ran east and west. An 

 outlier close to the western bank of the river stood out by itself, and has, from its 

 shape, given the name of Crown Point to this spot. 



This outlier is seen in the accompanying illustration (Plate 5), which is 

 reproduced from a photograph taken with a telephotographic lens at a distance of 

 three miles from Crown Point. Around the l^ase of the hill is a thick fringe of 

 river gums {Eucalyptus ros/rafa), the I'iver bed itself lying just to the right of the 

 part represented in the photograph. The latter shows very clearly the level 

 capping of Desert Sandstone which overlies the softer and more friable sandstone 

 beneath. 



Everything was as dry as usual with scarcely a sign of animal life except for 

 the ci'ows which followed (he camp everywhei'e, and of course ants innumeraiile. 



*3 



