HORN EXPEDITION — NAKRATIVE. 113 



{Livistona Maria) is peculiar to just tho part of the Fiuke Gorge in wliieh we were 

 camped, and to the Palm Creek which entered it on tlic west side close to our camp. 



Pi-ofessor Tate and myself spent the afternoon searching along the steep 

 banks of the river at the hase of the high cliffs. These banks are formed 

 of the talus of the cliffs, and are covered with a growth of nati\e fig trees 

 and such smaller shrul)s ns Indigofei-a. In this part of the gorge there are not 

 more than, at the outside, a dozen mature palm trees, the tallest of which would 

 perliaps reach a height of fifty feet. Many hours were spent by us in seai-ch 

 of molluscs, and we were rewarded by the finding of a new Bulimnoid shell 

 in the loose earth and dead leaves under a fig tree on the northern bank of 

 the gorge. There was apparently just tliis single colony of the shell {/j'/xrrm 

 fpenreri) as, though searching carefully, we never found it except in this one 

 restricted spot. Perhaps if the whole district were searched other colonies would 

 be found, but they are evidently few in number and far isolated from one another, 

 a feature in the distribution of many animals and plants which was constantly 

 being impressed upon us. 



Our camp on the soft sand of the creek bed close by a water-hole and at the 

 foot of a small clump of fine gum trees and Palms which stood out against tlie 

 lofty red cliil's behind them was a very picturesque one. The next morning 

 Professor Tate and myself once more went down the Finke, whilst Dr. Stirling 

 and Mr. Ileidenreich rode on up the Palm Creek conung in from the west to see 

 if it were worth our while to go and camp there. They retui'ned aft(;r a few hours 

 and reported that it w.as well worth our going up, so in the afternoon we shifted 

 camp. Dr. Stirling with Messrs. Winnecke and Heidenreich returning to the main 

 camp at lieiuiannsburg, while Messrs. Tate, Belt and myself went up the Palm 

 Creek intending to spend a day or two there. 



After traversing some two miles we came to a part where the hills closed in 

 and formed as usual a big sweep of precipitous red clifi's which rose abruptly from 

 the smooth, rocky bed of the river. The sides of the gorge on the northern bank 

 of the stream were overgrown with Cycads, whilst a solitary pidm or two had 

 managed to establish themselves in clefts right in the centre of the rocky bed. 

 Passing out of the Cycad gorge the hills opened out a little, where a stream came 

 in from the south but soon closed in again to form another long, winding gorge 

 leading back amongst the hills. 



The river bed was almost entirely formed of smooth rocks, but a little way 

 beyond the Cycad gorge was a patch of sand and on this, as there was unfoi'- 

 tunately no chance of a heavy rain to ilood the creek, we camped. 



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