140 
CONCLUDING REMARKS, 
be seen from thence, the dry and glazed-looking 
bed of Lake Torrens alone interrupting the monotony 
of the desert. 
There are still some few points connected with 
our knowledge of the outskirts of the interior which 
leave great room for speculation, and might lead to 
the opinion that it is not altogether a low or a desert 
region. The facts which have more immediately 
come under my own observation, are connected, first 
with the presence of birds belonging to a higher and 
better country in the midst of a desert region, and 
secondly, with the line of route taken by the Abori- 
gines in spreading over the continent, as deduced 
from a coincidence or dissimilarity of the manners, 
customs, or languages of tribes remotely apart from 
one another. 
With respect to the presence of birds in a region 
such as they do not usually frequent, I may state 
that at Mount Arden, near the head of Spencer’s 
Gulf, swans were seen taking their flight high in 
the air, to the north, as if making for some river 
or lake they were accustomed to feed at. At the 
Frome river, where it spreads into the plains to the 
north of Flinders range ; four white cockatoos 
were found flying about among the trees, although 
those birds had not been met with for 200 miles 
before I attained that point.* And about longitude 
128° 20' E., when crossing over towards King 
George’s Sound, large parrots were found coming 
* Vide Vol. I. pages 52, 124, and 344. 
