52 IIOUN EXPEDITION NARRATIVE. 



foukl liavo dovelnpod, in most cases, tlie wator is dried up. Tu addition to this 

 they woidd, if they were to survive, lia\'e to acciuire the iiahit of l)urr()\vini;- down 

 to a consi(li'ra,lile dcptli, else (unless like the fi'oj;- they al)sorl)ed a. sullieient. sujiply 

 of water within their hody) they would siuiidy he desiecated. 



The oidy waterdioles not in the course of river channels in wiiich, so fai' as at 

 present known, fisli exist ai'e the permanent ones associated with mound springs 

 and artesian wells. In the warm waters of one of the Dalhousie mound springs, 

 which unfortunately we did not have the chancre of visiting-, lish are found though 

 the species is not yet determined, and in the pools around the opening of the 

 artesian bore at l)oth Cowaid and Strangway's Hprings, tlie water in tiie case of 

 tlio former being only a few inclies deep, is found a small (lohius {G- c/rwi/zs), 

 wiiich is at present known to exist only in these two artiticial water-pools. In the 

 case of tlie boi'e at Coward Springs the water issues at a: ttimperature of 95" F. 

 Tiiere can be little doubt but that these two water-pools have been stocked with 

 lish l)y means of eggs brought to them attached to the feet or' feathers of some of 

 the numerous birds which, iunncdiately after the rainy season, appear in lunnbers 

 and lly about from one water-hole to another ; but where they were brought from 

 is unknown as the species is not yet recoided as occurring in any natural water- 

 pool 



Our camping place, Idracowra, was interesting l>ecause it was from this 

 locality that a few years before Mr. Bishop had obtained for Di-. Stirling the 

 larger number of specimens of that interesting marsupial Notoryctcs iyphlops. It 

 was too dry during the time which we spent in the district to obtain specimens of 

 the animal except one solitary one which, through the kindness of Mr. Ross of 

 Crown Point, was secured i)y a black boy and brought alive into camp but it sooii 

 died, and tliere is apparently very little hope of their ever being brought down 

 alive from the central region. 



Since tlie return of the Expedition, Mi'. Byi-ne has secured in the neighbour- 

 hood of Charlotte Waters, a consideralile number, some of the more interesting 

 points in connection with which are dealt with in the section of the work dealing 

 with the zoological results. They live in the sandliill districts, and though not 

 ea.sy to capture owing to their power of rapid Inirrowing, still they are not pcrh ips 

 (juite so rare as it was at one time thought they were. During the past season 

 wliicii has evidently been a favourable one, between forty and fifty liave been 

 captured within a radius of thirty miles of Charlotte Waters. The blacks s;iy that 

 they can catch them liest when there has been a fall of rain, as then their tracks 

 are more distinct. They do not make a permanent run like ;i mole does, for- the 



