O nOKN EXPKDITION — NARRATIVE. 



This progi'ainnie, rept^atcd day after clay whilst traversing country of the 

 most desolate description, sc^on became very monotonous; in fact, the most 

 striking feature of travel in Central Australia is the wearying monotony which 

 stands out so clearly in the writings of all the explorers of the interior. 



Lcjolcing back upon our journey, it appenrs to divider itself up naturally into 

 certain sections— ;/f^.y/, the country between Oodnadatta and a little to the north 

 of the Charlotte Waters Station, where we struck the main Finke River and its 

 tributaries ; second, the country along the Finke until we reached the James 

 Range ; fliird, the Silurian ridges which form the soutlu^rn part of the James 

 Range and the George Gil! and Levi Ranges ; fourth, the desert sandhill country 

 across Lake Amadeus to Ayers Rock and Mount Olga ; and, fifth, the interesting 

 and varied country in and about the northern part of the James and the 

 IMcDonnell Ranges. 



Speaking generally, our journey led us into three types of country. It is 

 usual to speak of the wliole interior of Australia as a Desert or Eremian country, 

 but this name as applied to the whole area is really very misleading. It is true 

 that over wide areas extending especially across the western half of the interior 

 there spread out sandhills and flats covered with Mulga scrub or " Porcupine " 

 grass which may justly be described as Desert, and across which no creeks of any 

 size or rivers run, and where water is oidy to be found often at long intervals of 

 time in isolated clay-pans or in rock holes amongst the rocky ridges which every 

 now and then rise above the sand and break the dead level of the monotonous 

 plains. 



Such true desert country has been repeatedly desci-ibed in the writings of 

 many of the Australian explorers — Grey, Forest, Warl)urton, etc. — and such 

 country we passed across in the journey from the Geoige Gill Range to Ayers 

 Rock and Mount Olga. 



But, in addition to this true desert, there is a vast tract of country com- 

 prising th(! great Lake Eyre Basin, stretching from this eastwards and northwards 

 into the interior of New South Wales and Queensland and up to and beyond the 

 McDonnell Ranges, across which run such intermittent streams as the Cooper, 

 the Warburton, the Macumba, the Finke, and the Todd, dry for the greater part 

 of the yeai', but every now and then at varying intervals of time swollen with 

 heavy floods which spread out over wide tracts, and for a time transform the whole 

 country into a land covered with a luxuriant growth of vegetation. To this part 

 of the continent the name of the AUSTRALIAN STEPPES may be suitably 

 applied. 



