409 



some distance off registered 90° Fh., and the water could be 

 seen bubbling up in the centre. Great numbers of duck were 

 on all these waters, the principal ones being the Black Duck 

 (Anas super ciliosa), the Grey Teal (Virago gibberifrons), Aus- 

 tralian Shoveller (Spatula rhynchotis), and White-eyed Duck 

 (Nyroca australis). When flushed they flew round for a 

 while and then returned to their hot bath. These birds did 

 not seem to be getting over-much food, because those speci- 

 mens which came under our notice were not really fat. The 

 tepid water seems to have an attraction for the ducks, but 

 not as a source of food. Cretaceous fossils are plentiful to 

 the east of these mound springs. In many places copper stains 

 were seen upon stones scattered about amongst the springs. 



Leaving this country, with its strange black mounds of 

 travertine, the dark colouring being caused no doubt by the 

 decayed vegetable matter accumulating from the fringe of 

 rushes and flags, we made a north-north-westerly course and 

 passed through the narrow belt forming the restricted area 

 in which that strange shrub, the red mulga (Acacia cypero- 

 phylla), is found, which grows to an average height of 12 or 

 15 ft., occasionally perhaps to 20 ft. It is the only acacia 

 in Australia, if not in the world, which sheds its bark in the 

 strange way shown in the illustration (plate xxx., fig. 1). The 

 bark is of a bright-red colour and peels off in flakes or forming 

 spiral-shaped rolls, which gives the stem of the plant a very 

 strange appearance. Bird life through all this country was 

 scarce ; it was only near the waters that they were found. Occa- 

 sionally a pair cf the Cinnamon Ground Bird (Samuela cinna- 

 momea) were met with far away from water in the sandhill 

 country. This species seems to be able to do without water 

 longer than most birds, which may be due to certain insects, 

 such as spiders, forming their food, and these insects con- 

 tain a great quantity of moisture. Our route led us past 

 Blood Creek, and we camped in its sandy bed. Here we 

 collected the first specimen of the Red-browed Pardalote 

 (Pardalotus rubricatus, sub. sp. ?) and a few frogs known to 

 science as Hyla rubella. 



Starting early next morning we left the telegraph line 

 again and struck out to the east. I was anxious to work out 

 in that direction because no one had worked the country 

 scientifically to the east of the line. We found the country 

 very dry, and did not do much work till the Adminga Creek 

 was reached. Following up this creek we found that the 

 waters were drying up very fast, and in most cases they only 

 contained liquid mud. The whole of our party became unwelL 

 here with that great scourge of the interior, dysentery, and 

 we all suffered from time to time in this way throughout the 



