IIOKN KXTEDITION NARHATIVE. 81 



The j()<4giiig of tlie horsos and camels is very lial)lc to smash plates — I lost 

 nearly two dozen of inim^ in this way — and line sand grains pcnetiate eveiything 

 and often sci'atch the film. It is almost impossible to avoid this in Central 

 Australia, as they get into the dark slide and upon the plates when you are 

 changing them. To avoid this as far as possible I adopted the plan suggested to 

 me by Mr. Hoin of putting over the interior of the dark slides a coat of vaseline, 

 to which the sand grains adhered. 



After giving the horses a last drink at Reedy Creek as it was by no means 

 sure when they would get their next, we started out southwards soon after midday. 

 C)ur track lay across Porcupine-covered sandhills with intervening flats coseicd 

 with Mulga and Desert Oaks. Every now and again were low-lying and scrub- 

 covered sandstone i-ises, and away to the north we coidd see the high ranges 

 stretching east and west. Out beyond Cai'michael Crag was a big smoke made 

 by the main party. 



After tr'avelling some sixteen miles we crossed the end of King Creek, where 

 the dry bed becomes lost amongst the sandhills and the line (tf lied gums 

 disappears, and shortly ;ifter sundown camped for the night on a hard, dry clay- 

 pan. 



We had breakfast before daylight and just at suniise the black boy brought 

 in the horses and we started off. All the morning we were tiaversing low sand- 

 hills, on many of which grew a tine sanrlhill gum, E. eudesi/tflides, which leached a 

 height of no to 80 feet. The trunk is silver-grey in colour and very shiny, except 

 the butt where it is covered with a paper-like bark whic^li peels oil' in long, yellow- 

 brown scales. The grey-green foliage usually forms a kind of umbrella-shaped 

 mass, and it is somewhat strange to find a big tree like this right out amongst the 

 waterless sandhills. 



About twelve miles south of our camp we passed l)y the eastern end of 

 Winnall's Ridge, which forms a narrow Silurian quartzite hill rising abruptly, 

 with a well-marked escarpment, some three miles long on its north side. It forms 

 the most southern outcrop of Silurian quartzite which we came across in our 

 journey. The height of the ridge is about 1700 feet above sea level, and that of 

 the escarpment at its eastern end about 200 feet. On the sandhills round about, 

 the Pituri plant, Diilwisia Hopwoodii, was gi'owing. It forms a small, stiff shi'ub 

 usually about four or five feet high with coriaceous, lanceolate leaves which are 

 used in some parts by the blacks as a narcotic, and as an article of trade it has 

 considerable value amongst them. In this part they seem to prefcn- the native 



