THE ZOOLOGY OF THE HORN EXPEDITION. 
E. H. EATON. 
A WORK of considerable importance, which has received too 
little attention in this country, is Professor Baldwin Spencer's 
Report of the Horn Expedition to Central Australia, published 
in September, 1896. The author’s conclusions regarding the 
affinities of the Australian fauna are of vital importance, espe- 
cially concerning the Antarctica theory, and a brief reference 
to the expedition, with a statement of its main results, may be of 
interest to readers of the Naturalist. 
The object of the expedition was to explore the country about 
the McDonnell Ranges, which lie just south of the tropic between - 
129° and 135° east longitude. Leaving Adelaide in the begin- 
ning of May, 1894, the party proceeded by rail to Oodnatta, 
where the journey of 2000 miles by caravan was begun. 
There were five specialists in charge of the different departments, 
besides two collectors, a cook, and men to care for the camels. 
Mr. Horn, who equipped the expedition, accompanied it for a 
part of the journey in a carriage drawn by a team of camels. 
The course lay for the most part through the dry country 
in the great Finke Basin, or Larapinta Land. Sandy deserts, 
* gibber ” plains, dry river channels, with occasional water holes, 
scanty brush, and dried porcupine grass offered a monotonous 
scenery and poor prospects for collecting. By day the unclouded 
sun drove all but the hardiest creatures from the blistering 
sands; at night the temperature often fell many degrees below 
the freezing point. A yard away from the water holes the earth 
was parched and unfit for the habitation of animals or plants. 
In this region, however, during the rainy season, there is a 
wonderful change of scenery. "Vegetation grows with amazing 
rapidity. Frogs, lizards, and mollusks creep from their hiding 
places, and their swarming descendants soon cover the country. 
Fishes and crustaceans are scattered by the swollen rivers from 
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