HORN F.XPRDITION NAlUiATIVE. 9") 



from actual contact with which tliey arc protected by green leaves during the 

 process. 



These nativ(>s living amongst the sandhills and hare ranges of Central Aus- 

 tralia, are in certain respects amongst the lowest of the Australian aljoi'igincs. 

 They make no use of the skin of the kangaroos and wallahies, which ai'c l)y no 

 means unconnnon, for purposes of clothing: (hey ha\e not even any netted "diily- 

 bags " such as are made liy natives in other parts : their weapons and implements 

 of various kinds arc of the simplest nature and but little ornamented, and such 

 designs as they do carve or paint upon them are very crude when compared with 

 those of the noi'thern tribes. Their stone implements are interesting because they 

 are simply chipped and no attempt is made to grind them down so as to produce 

 smooth surfaces. So far as these ai'e concerned they a,re a strong contrast to the 

 ground axe-heads made by the natives all along the coastal district from Victoria 

 northwards. 



Wlien they had eaten as much as they could they laid themselves down for 

 the night and all was quiet, except for a minute or two every now and then when 

 one or other of them woke up and raked together the end)ers of tlic fiies around 

 which they slept. 



The Return to the (Jeorge Oiij, Uangr. 



Next morning we started north to retrace our steps to the George (Jill rjange. 

 The first day brought us to Coulthard's Well, or Kurtitina. Leaving this at sun- 

 rise w(i reached Lake Amadeus at eight o'clock, and after photographing crossed 

 its salt bed once more.* The surface was covered in parts with numberless little 

 cones about half-an-inch high and the same in diametei". A circle of daik sand 

 grains about tlireo inches in diameter surrounded each, everything else but this 

 thin circle being fjuite white with salt. A small hole in the cone led down into a 

 vertical passage from one-and-a-half to thi-ee inches in depth. Each contained 

 from two to five small, black, winged hymenopterous insects which were alive but 

 quite quiescent, probably because of the cold. Unfortunately the specimens which 

 I collected got spoilt during the day's rough riding, so that they cannot be 

 determined. These and a, solitary spider walking on the surface were the only 

 signs of animal life and the Lake was as silent and deserted as when we first 

 cros.sed it in the dusk. Not even a solitary bird was to be .seen. 



* The lied of the Lake is 13S0 feet above sea level : that of Lake Eyri' being .30 feet below sea level. 



