74 IIOliN EXPEDITION NAURATIVE. 



Away t(i llif soui-li \v;is I.Ik'. dosert sandhill country wliieli fofuis the basin of 

 the Lake Aniadeus drainage system, so tliat, strictly sj)eakiiig, we had now passed 

 out of the Lai'apiiitinc^ region and were on the northern limit of the Amadean 

 from wliicii stretches out westwards tlie true Desert or Eretnian region, of 

 which the basin of Lake Amatleus may be regarded as the eastern tei'mination. 

 The, Cicorgedill llangi^ on its southern face presents a succession of bold lieadlands 

 sepai'ated from one anothei' by gorges down each of wdiicli runs, in wet seasons, a 

 stream, the more importaiit of which are l>agot, Stokes, Reedy, Penny ami King 

 Cieeks. Each of these runs out for a short distance — perhaps ten miles at most — 

 into the sandhill country, where their waters rapidly disappeai'. They give rise to 

 what have always been termed by the early explorers "CJum creeks," that is sandy 

 lj(;ds which only contain watei', if at all, at rare intcirvals, but along the sides of 

 which grow a line of gum trees {Encdlyptia rostrata). 



Our lirst camp was at Bagot Cn-ek. Here there were two small water-holes, 

 one of them surrounded with a rich growth of the I'ced Anmdo pJiragiiiitcs in full 

 Hower whiU? a \ery small stream trickled at intervals down the rocky valley leading 

 up behind our camp into the hills. 



In certain respects our camp here and the next one at Reedy Creek were not 

 only amongst the most i)leasant from their picturesque surroundings but were the 

 b(!st from a collecting point of view. On the one side we had the range of 

 Silurian sandstone; hills with its shelteretl water-})ools and on the other the open 

 sandhill country. There was plenty of work for the Zoologist and Botanist ; 

 within accessible distance were fossiliferous sti'ata, and the presence of aborigines 

 was made evident by rock paintings. A lengthy stay in this part with a main 

 camp by one of the water holes and time to go out and explore the district would 

 probably yield valuable results. 



A description of Reedy Creek will serve to give some idea of the surroundings. 

 Here our camp was at the base of a semicircular hollow in the range open to the 

 south and shut in t(j the north by precij)itous clills of red .sandstone some two 

 hundred fc(;t in height. At one spot at the base of these sheltered by the rocks 

 and hiddcin by a growth of rushes and ferns was a deep water-pool. On the rocks 

 were pines, lig trees and Tecomas, and clo.se by the water's edge were clusters of 

 the ferns Adiantum and Cheilanthcs, while a rich growth of Aspidiuni had s{)re;id 

 over the swampy ground which formed an outlet from the pool in flood time. 

 The water was llecked with the floating leaves of Vallisiicria and Potaniogeton, on 

 till! st('ms and submerged pa' ts of which a black water-planarian — the only one 

 met with during the Expedition — was crawling about. Large N(;pa-like insects, 



