IIOliN EXPEDITION NAUUATIVE. 75 



two ineht's in leiigtli, Notonectas, water licutk's, iniiiutc cyprid.s ami uiolluscs 

 such as Aucylus and Buliuus made up tlic water fauna, ; tlieie wet'c nu lisli in 

 any of the pools to the south of the I'ange nor were there any frogs to be seen 

 or heard. 



From tlie water-hole the rocks rose with precipitous sides over which at one 

 point there was evidently in I'ainy seasons a watei'fall coming down from a rocky 

 gorge above. Outside the holi(jw in which was our camp the southern face of tlie 

 hills though steep could be climljed ;ind the gor'ge above the water-pool was found 

 to be occupied by a succession of small holes surrounded liy bare rock. Evidently 

 during tiie rainy season these upper pools are scoured out and so they coiitain(^d 

 very little in the way of animal life. Amongst the rocks the usual pines and lig 

 trees were growing, and a few plants of Hibbcrtia glabberiina with its striking 

 yellow Hower, the lar'gest of the genus. On the whole I'ange grew plenty of 

 porcupine grass, in fact we found this ranging from the sandhills right to the 

 very suimnit of the higlmst mountains. In tlie gorge above the lower pool were 

 numbers of pot-holes evidently worn out by the giinding action of the stones 

 swept into them when the lioods came down from the hills. In one of them was 

 a snake {Fseiidoiuija ajfinis). 



From the top of the escarpment we could see the range running away east 

 and west with its series of bold bluH's rising one behind the other. Westward it 

 terminated in n, high scarped hill called by Giles, Carniichael Crag. Out to the 

 south stretched the sandhills, with Mulga and Mallee scrub on the Hats, and heie 

 and there a low ridge of Silurian sandstone standing out above the sui'rounding 

 country ; while tlie creeks could be traced running away from the range one after 

 the other with their fiinge of gum trees dying away in the distance. 



On the hard sandy flats skirting the range we found an abundance of mice 

 and jerboa-i'ats. Each of them makes a hole in the ground just big enough to 

 admit the body and from this the burrow goes down for perliaps three or four 

 feet. In the mice burrows {Mits gon/Ji) were more than one adult with young 

 ones, usually four in nundjer. In the jerboa burrows {Hapalotis /nitchel/i) there 

 wtis never more than one adult, with sometimes two broods of young ones also 

 usually four in number. 



The jerboa-rat, as is well known, has developed curiou.sly long hind legs just 

 like many of the marsupials, in fact when they are travelling it is not easy to 

 distinguish in colour, size and mode of progression a Hapahjtis from an Ante- 

 chinomys. Both live in the same class of country — hard sandy ground covered 



