HOKN EXPKDITIOX NAUHATIVE. 43 



cool. It then Iiops aliuut in suaieli of food, aiid .'it thu appioach of day buifow.s 

 down into the cool damp .sand behjw tlu; surface. 



There are tliu.s two types of Ijurrowiiig fruLjs in Central jVustralia — one the 

 clay-pan frog, forming a permanent Ijurrow ; the otlu;r, the river-bed frog, forming 

 temporary burrows. 



The same .spt'cies as the latter is found in t^uiu'iisland and New South Walc.^, 

 but so far as is yet known, it has ordy adopted this Ijurrowing liabit in Ceiitial 

 Australia and with that nia.y be as.sociated its strongly webbed feet which are 

 very unlike the typical e.\am[)les of the genus to which it belongs. 



On May I'Jth, we started from Crown Point and left the telegraph line to tli'' 

 East of us. It vvas more than two months befoi'e wc struck it again near to Alice 

 .Springs. 



Travelling West thr(»ugh the usual scrubby country we reaclu;d the Lilla 

 Creek which flows into the Finke from the desolate barren C(juntry out to tic 

 West. After reaching camp ch^se to the Lilla Oi'eek we were surprised to see oui' 

 black boy Harry wIkj had gone out with Messis. Winnecke and Watt. lie hail 

 ridden across country to tiy and intercept us with a note saying tli.at the two latter 

 had changed their plans and would meet us on the Finke, near to a place where, 

 hummed in Ijy a semicircular escarpment of high sandstone cliffs, it sweeps round 

 what is known, from its shape, as the Horse Sluje Bend, and to the blacks as 

 Engoordina. This necessitated a slight change in our plans as we had airaiigcid to 

 ni(!et higher up the Lilla, and so crossing the latter instead of following it uji 

 westwards, we struck the Finke close to Mount Musgrave, a curious jjyranudal 

 peak rising from bare stony plains. 



We found that Messrs. Winnecke and Watt had first followed up the Coyder 

 for some distance finding no water. Then they had struck across north-west into 

 some hills to which the name of Horn llange was given, and tluui crossing the 

 Lilla Creek which was, like the tioyder, perfectly dry, they had travelled north- 

 wards to the Finke. On a hill lying some forty-five miles north-west of the 

 junction of the Lilhi, and Finke they had found a Silurian formation containing 

 fossils— a find of some importance as this lies a considerable distance to the south 

 of the previously known Silurian formation of the James llange, from which it is 

 separated by a wide tract of Desert Sandstone country. 



From Engoordina we travelled north-west across country so as to reach Idra- 

 cowra, the course of tlu; Finke here forming two sides of a triangle of which our 

 track formed the third and south-western side. 



