IlOIiN EXPKDITION NAUKATIVK. 



i i 



A little to the west of lleedy Creek \v;is MiiotluM' i;'oi-ge amongst tlie liills out 

 from wliicli llowerl Penny Creek. On the rocks enclosing- it were growing at one 

 spot a consi(lei-al>le nunil)er of Cycacls in fruit {Eiiccplialartos Alacdoniiclli). 



The species is contined to the Higher Steppes of the central region and this 

 was the first occasion on wliich we had seen it. Growing I'iglit on the face of the 

 rock, wliere it woidd scarcely be tliought that tlier(^ was earth enougji to afTord 

 sustenance for so large a plant, they look very picturesque. The older ones have 

 a stem some three or four feet high from the top of which spi'ings a crown of dark 

 green, graceful, palm-like fi-onds, each of which may he as much as ten feet long. 



The gorge led away back into the range, and climbing over the rocks wo 

 made our way, disturbing .several rock wallabies [Pcfroj^a/e /afcrah's) as we did so, 

 along a narrow cleft not more than a yard wide and in parts fully one hundred 

 feet in depth, and then clambering down the steep face of a cliff found ourselves in 

 an upper part of the gorge, where the rocks in colour and weathering mimicked 

 on a small scale the canons of the Colorado district. 



In rainy seasons the water must pour in torr'cnts down the narrow bed of 

 this upper part of the gorge, l>ut now there were only small pools amongst the 

 rocks the sides of which lower down, where tlu^ valley l)roa(lened out somewhat, 

 were thick with rushes and Asjiidium. One or two new species of Molluscs wei(; 

 secured and also a- curious Orthopteiviii insect resembling a small llatteiied-out 



