154 THE AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST. 
Kermadec group, with the object of studying its fauna and 
flora. The party have now returned, and Mr. Tom Iredale, 
one of the adventurous band, has kindly furnished the follow- 
ing notes. Owing to unforseen circumstances, the expedition 
was compelled to curtail its time on the islands for reasons 
explained by Mr. Iredale, nevertheless, excellent work was done 
in the way of biological collections, which latter have been en- 
trusted to specialists for elucidation, and who will, in due time, 
make known the results of their investigations and research. 
“The Kermadec group, though from their geographical 
position possessing interest, perhaps, unequalled by any other 
group in the Pacific, up to the end of 1907 remained entirely 
unexplored as to theirfauna. ‘lo remedy this defect, more felt in 
New Zealand than in Australia on account of their close con- 
nection politically as well as geographically, an expedition was 
at that time organised. The drawback to all previous would- 
be investigators was the length of time necessary to devote to 
the study, viz., twelve months, the only means of communica- 
tion being the -government steamer, which calls once a year. 
It was considered that every branch of science should be 
undertaken, so that the time would materially assist rather 
than bore us. Though the plantiife had been previously 
systematically collected, it had never been attacked from an 
ecological standpoint, and such observations would be especially 
valuable to New Zealand students on account of the fact that 
many New Zealand plants occurred there. ‘To assist in this 
branch, meteorological observations were to be taken, and the 
loan of a complete set of instruments were obtained from the 
government. 
“ Five of us landed on the 31st December, 1907, and left again 
on the 11th November, 1908, our projected stay being cut short 
owing to unforseen circumstances in New Zealand requiring 
the despatch of the government steamer at that early date. 
“The main island, Sunday, is simply a volcanic crater, a little 
over a mile in diameter, from the northeast and southwest of 
which run two rugged spurs. The crater ridge is of an average 
height of about 1000 feet, as are also the spurs, almost perpen- 
dicularly descending on the east side. In the floor of the 
crater are two lakes of a saline nature, whilst hot springs 
still indicate the presence of volcanic action. 
“The whole of the island is densely bush-covered with nikau, 
tree-ferns and poutukava, the latter predominant and giving to 
the place an aspect strangely familiar to the New Zealander. The 
discovery of a very fine new tree-fern gave exceeding pleasure, 
being entirely unexpected owing to the previous collections 
being exhaustively made. This island being the resort, for 
breeding purposes, of multitudes of sea birds, some species 
unknown elsewhere as breeders, we anticipated much new in 
