6 
IlOUN EXPEDITION-ANTHROPOLOGY. 
are, with but little variation, found extending over the iininense area of the central 
regions of the inappropriately named province of South Australia. We may take 
the.se regions to extend from the terminus of the northern railway system at 
Oodnadatta in the south, to the Daly Waters telegraph station in the north, or 
roughly speaking, from the 28th to the 16th parallel of south latitude. Ethno- 
lOgically speaking, the region might be extended even still further to the south. 
What little has been written of the natives of the interior of Western Australia, no 
less than the uniformity of the physical, botanical and faunistic features of this 
region—so far as they have been made known by the various exploring parties 
that have traversed the westerly half of the continent—^justify the belief that the 
same anthropological characteristics extend over most, if not all, of the inland 
regions of Western Australia. Still less is known ethnologically of the area which 
lies to the east of the telegraph line between it and the Queensland border but, if 
a judgment may be based on the character of the native handiwork, these regions, 
also, must be included in the large homogeneous group which thus practically 
occupies the whole of the interior of South Australia, of Western Australia and, 
probably, of the westerly regions of Queensland. 
The general impression of Central Australia is that of a desert country, but the 
term is a misnomer, if by it we are to understand a region destitute of animal and 
vegetable life. Extreme monotony of soil and scenery there is no doubt, but the 
gatherings of the zoologist and botanist of the Horn Expedition, even in the most 
uncompromising regions, afford evidence of a considerable variety of plants and of 
the humbler forms of animal life; and, in the valleys of the McDonnell Ranges 
and of its outliers standing in the very heart of the continent, we have, despite a 
capricious rainfall, a country which, for Australia, is well watered, which, after 
rain, may even be well grassed and which holds a fair amount of indigenous game. 
There is no doubt but that in the prolonged droughts, to which a great part of the 
inland regions of Australia are unfortunately periodically subject, there are times 
when the waters dry up and v'egetation withers, leading to a corresponding 
diminution of the native food supply. With the improvident habits of the 
natives such seasons must, of necessity, be for them times of want, but of the 
permanent effects of mal nutrition in the districts visited we saw very little sign. 
It must be stated, however, that the journey of the Horn Expedition followed a 
season of unusually heavy rainfall, when the country was seen under exceptionally 
favourable circumstances. Moreover, with the exception of an excursion of a 
section of the party to Ayers Rock and Mount Olga, the Expedition did not extend 
into the drier and more barren regions that lie towards the Western Australian 
boundary and beyond where the conditions are more unfavourable. The general 
