38 CENTRAL AUSTRALIAN 



feed, green herbage. I observed to day a great number of ant 

 tunnels made of the resinous substance at the root of the spinif ex ; 

 they appear to be built for protection, either from fire or the fierce 

 heat of the summer sun, and are to be seen on the sandy surface 

 of the ground extending from one spinifex bush to another ; at the 

 end and in the root of the spinifex is the nest ; the longest tunnel 

 I have seen measured about twenty feet long ; upon picking up the 

 tunnel and, of course, thereby breaking it, the busy insects are 

 seen hurrying to and fro, carrying their eggs, seed, or material ; 

 even on piece of ground recently burnt, I have noticed that the 

 ant tunnels and nest remain uninjured. I have at last gained the 

 extreme western end of this salt lake formation, and the character 

 of the surrounding country is svich that it leads me to think it will 

 never be again visited ; but for the claypan water, it would have 

 taken more than double the time to accomplish its examination, 

 and then not without considerable risk. It is now beyond doubt 

 that no streams run into this lake from the west or north-west, and 

 the inference is that in abotit one hundred miles or less to the west 

 the sandhill formation would gradually merge into the elevated 

 plateau of gravelly undulations, met with by Giles's Expedition of 

 1874. I now turn my back on the west with feelings of disappoint- 

 ment, and as I have some interesting problems to solve to the east- 

 ward, the time allotted to me for being in the field will be jxretty 

 well occupied in determining the outline of the lakes, although I 

 cannot but now think that Lake Amadeus will not cover anything 

 like the extent it is supposed to. The quondong tree was met with 

 to day ; no animals or birds were seen. Bar. 28 - 575in., ther. 58° 

 at 5 p.m. 



Friday June 7th.— Camp No. 41. Bar. 286()0in., ther. 36° at 

 sunrise; heavy dew; weather still cloudy. — Left camp at 3 - 45 a.m. 

 on a bearing of N. 5° E. Travelled over well-grassed mulga hills ; 

 in three miles came to some old wurlies ; several claypans and good 

 grass with saltbush were found at this point. I now turned on a 

 bearing of S. 75° E. expecting to meet the south shore of the lake, 

 for from the appearance from the spot where we first struck the 

 lake it seemed to be almost at the Bonython, towards the western 

 end of which I have been steering. Soon after leaving the natives' 

 camp, we entered into a dense mulga scrub, which in three miles^ 

 opened out into spinifex undulations with limestone. At mid-day y 

 from a low hill, 1 obtained a good view of the lake, its south shore, 

 to my great surprise, was five miles to the north of us. I imme- 

 diately changed my course to S. 20° E. to reach the western 

 end of the Bonython Range. Arrived at these hills in about twc 

 and a half miles, but was unable to find any good camping place, 

 there being no water and very poor feed for the camels. Being 

 anxious to fix their position and height, also to take bearings, I 

 decided to turn out the camels, although we had only travelled 

 fourteen miles. So soon as the camels were unloaded I went with 



