HORN KXPKDITION NAIiliATIVE. 93 



jiurposes, a few odd liits of iliiit and pieces of kangaroo and ciiiu tendon and also a 

 rather line tuft of Peragale tail tips helongini;' to his wife and forming hei- dress 

 and oiiiament on special occasions. As his wife was not with him and lie had 

 evidently consideral^lc misgivings as to what might happen if without her consent 

 he parted with hei- belongings, I had great dilHculty in persuading him to Ijarter 

 the little hag and its contents and had eventually to part with iny sheath knife to 

 secure it. It was in this camp that we found the iron bar previously referred to, 

 which, as the blacks had never seen a white man before, had probaljly been taken 

 from Tietken's pack saddle and adapted as a yam-stick, though of course it is quite 

 possible that it might have been traded down from fui'ther north. 



After the blacks had become friendly three more of them insisted upon follow- 

 ing us across to Ayers Rock, and without any difiiculty at all kept up with us for 

 the whole of the twenty-two miles which we traversed through the scrub and sand- 

 hills. On the way over we photogiajihed tiie llange, the eastern face of which 

 must be fully live or six miles in length, and set tire to tracts of Porcupine grass. 

 As soon as these are ignited the hawks assemljle, though none aie to be seen 

 before, and pounce down ujion the smaller animals such a,s lizards which are driven 

 out of the burning grass. 



After reaching our old camp at Aycrs Rock there was still an hour or two of 

 daylight left and Mr. Watt and myself went out to make a further investigation 

 of the caves with their native drawings. On the rocks we found a few fig trees 

 and Acacias and the Gastrolobium plant growing, which in certain paits of the 

 Central district is very destructive to cattle which I'eadily feed upon it and are 

 poisoned. All round tlie base of the western face of the rock- gi-ow very line 

 specimens of Acncia saliciua with its light green drooping foliage, and the kangaroo 

 grass reaches a height of six feet or moi'e. 



As wc wandered back to cauip at sunset the scene was exceptionally beautiful. 

 On the ground the tall, light yellow gra.ss and the gi'cen Acacias stood out in 

 strong contrast to the venetian-red rocks which rose perpendiculai'ly for nearly a 

 thousand feet, and above them was the cold steel-blue sky. 



The blacks had again made their camp close to ours and during the aftcu'noon 

 they had secured two kangaroos out in the scrub. The kangaroo was the common 

 red one {Mncropns riifiis) which has evidently a wide distribution .as it is 

 apparently the only species inhabiting the plain country, and as the same cl.iss of 

 countiy stretches right away into Western Australia presumably tjie species is 

 distributed throughout it. 



