ZOOLOGY OF BELLENDEN-KER, AS ASCERTAINED BY THE 
LATE EXPEDITION UNDER MR. A. MESTON. 
4 
Queensland Museum, 
Brisbane, 4tli October, 1889. 
Q-ENTLEMEN, — There is probably no part of Australia, certainly 
no part of Queensland, which at present excites the interest of the 
naturalist so forcibly as the district extending from Cardwell north- 
wards for some distance beyond Cairns and inwards to the western 
slopes of the Eazor-back Eange. In this limited tract of coast 
country we find a concentration of forms of animal life elsewhere (in 
Australia) unknown. It has peculiar mammals, peculiar birds, 
peculiar reptiles, molluscs, insects, and in many cases these strangers 
to the rest of the land are derivatives, not from the surrounding 
Australian stock, but from the Indo-Malayan fauna (Tn. the one hand 
and the Papuan on the other. 
The cause of the phenomenon is a problem of much interest in its 
bearing on the distribution of the lower animals, still more in its 
probably being an important factor in the history of man. But 
before attempting its explication it is advisable that we should know 
as fully as possible the extent to which the peculiarities of this 
remarkable region are carried. This is an object to which, with your 
approbation, long and not altogether unsuccessful attention has been 
paid by your staff. 
In pursuance of that object, a proposal to explore Bellenden-Ker, 
the highest ground in the district, made to the Government by Mr. 
A. Meston, in the interests of zoology and botany, and promising to 
yield a valuable increase in our knowledge of the natural produc- 
tions of the district, having been communicated to me, I ventured to 
anticipate your approval of Mr. Meston' s application for the services 
of the zoological collector, and despatched Mr. Broadbent to Cairns 
with instructions to report himself to the leader of the expedition on 
his arrival. 
The expedition left Cairns on the 14th of June, and kept the field 
ten weeks, returning on the 26th of August. Its results, so far as 
they pertain to zoology, I have now the honour to report. 
Possibly those results are not so plentiful as they might have been 
had the explorers been able to continue their labours until the 
summer months. It is, of course, impossible to accept the fruits of 
two or three months' work at any season, but more especially in the 
winter season, as representing the total amount of the indigenous life 
of a region. Birds are apt to seek higher or lower levels as their appro- 
priate food or temperature dictates ; reptiles and the rest seek their 
dormitories till called into activity by greater warmth, moisture, or pro- 
vender. In estimating the value of the zoological work done during 
