66 IIOHN EXPEDITION — NARRATIVE. 



Only line exainpli^ of the rn,rost of tlic Centrul AiiKti-a,li;in tisli — P/o/cs/zs 

 nrifcuh'i/s — \v;i.s found. Tliis is ;i, new .species of Siluroid closely .illied f.o the 

 common c;it-fisli (C/>/>/'i/f>x/(7///s /niiddiuis) of tlie JMurray ILiscr, (Jiouuli it is much 

 smaller in size, only feachiuL;' a length of aliout live inches. The hlack hoy with 

 me legai'ded it as a dangeioiis .miinal to touch, prol)at>ly l)eca.use f)f its strong 

 dorsal .spine. 



Except ill the case of pools such as the one at Henbury, every individual fisli 

 whicli gets waslied down from tlie .small permanent holes amongst tlie I'anges must 

 inevital)ly perish. It would not lie more than at most three or four weeks lieforc 

 all those whicli we saw along the Tlpilla, Gorge would Ije dead, as the pools were 

 very small and shallow and were rapidly drying up. 



Leaving lUamurta, we travelled westwards through Mulga scrub along the 

 soutliern base of the range with its series of jutting promontories. Every now 

 and again were patches of deseit oaks or Mallee gum and the hard sandy ground 

 was covered with yellow kangaroo grass, while occasionally there were tussocks 

 of poi'cupine grass brightened with tlie red flowers of Brachyseina growing 

 around their bases. Though the country with its bold red ranges was somewhat 

 picturesque, at all events in comparison with the monotonous gibber plains, still 

 everything was as dry as in the Desert Sandstone district, and we had now been 

 completely disillusionised with regard to the idea with which we had started — 

 that we should find these central ranges of the continent an oasis in which had 

 been preserved relics elsewhere lost of a more or less primitive fauna and flora. 



As Professor Tate has said in the Botanical report, he had "pictured a vast 

 mountain system capable of preserving some remnants of that pristine flora which 

 had existed on this continent in Paleocene times — probably a beech, possibly an 

 oak, elm or sycamore." For my own part I had hoped to find amongst the ranges 

 well watered and fertile valleys, with at all events a few types of animal life, 

 especially amongst marsupials, which had persisted in this isolated part of the 

 continent. 



The fact proliably is that traveller.s, struck with the beauty of certain spots, 

 after passing for long, weary weeks or even months over desert country, have 

 uiicoiisciou.sly exaggerated their beauty and fertility. In reality tlie ranges form 

 bare and often narrow ridges separated from one another by dry and sandy, scrub 

 covered flats varying in breadth from a few hundred yards to many miles, and 

 there is nothing like a great mountain mass with shelterefl, well watered and 

 fertile valleys such as we hail pictured in imagination. 



