26 . the South Australian Naturalist. 
the roads for miles: the gullies are largely occupied with fruit 
and vegetable gardens and the hills crowned with a forest of 
white stringybark now all too quickly disappearing. The party 
were received by Mr. and Mrs. Burdett and conducted to the 
cherry orchard where the pickers were hard at work. At our 
host’s pressing invitation the party engaged in a test of capacity 
but could not stay the pace for long. Adjournment was then 
made to the garden of native flowers Mr. Burdett has just estab- 
lished. In this remarkable garden the visitors were able to see 
a splendid collection of Australia’s most wonderful wild flowers, 
including Kangaroo paws, Leschenaiiltias, West Australian ever- 
lastings, Proteas and many others. 
Before leaving afternoon tea was served by Mrs. and Miss 
Burdett and the party returned via Ashton, Summertown and Be- 
lair, the route leading through the well-cultivated gardens of 
Piccadilly. 
LECTURES. 
LECTURE BY PROF. SIR DOUGLAS MAWSON, D.Sc. 
“EXPLORING IN ANTARCTICA.” OCTOBER 20th. 
He stated that his object was to relate the scientific work 
attempted, the plant and animal life of the antarctic, and other 
data collected. Nothing could equal in interest the collection of 
such information in new lands. The material collected by his 
expedition in 1914 was still not completely examined. Adelie 
Land, with which his expedition spent its time, had been regard- 
ed as an Ausrtalian sphere, although Fance was claiming it now, 
on the ground that a party of Frenchmen spent two days there 
early in the nineteenth cenutry. He explained the movements of 
the various exploring parties, and stated that the ice-covered area 
was twice the size of Australia, 
When Macquarie Island was reached the temperature was 
too low to permit the existence of plants larger than shrubs. A 
great part of the work of an expedition consisted of a study of the 
sea, its depth, the character of the bottom, and life of every kind 
in it. Samples of sea water at various depths were obtained m 
bottles, the contents of which had to be analyzed and tested for 
temperature. The Mawson expedition had been able to run a 
line of soundings from Tasmania to the antarctic, and in the pro- 
cess had discovered sunken land, which consisted of hard rock, 
with no deposit of mud. The life of the surface water was micro- 
