92 THE AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST. 
ing, where a series of coastal marine potholes is found. Each 
of these is a marine aquarium in itself. Bulbararing Lake is 
being renamed Moore Lake, another evidence of the in¢apacity 
of the modern to appreciate appropriateness of musical abori- 
ginal names. The Gosford district has geologically achieved 
renown. It was a quarry not far from the township of the 
sleepy shire council that a complete fossil specimen of the ex- 
tinct reptile Labyrinthodon was discovered. This was a huge 
lizard of the mesozoic period, and when the fossil was un- 
earthed it was secured for the British Museum. Before it 
was despatched to the old country, however, a cast of it was 
taken, and is now in the Australian Museum. One of the 
lady members of the party secured some fossils from the shales 
at Terrigal for investigation later on. A lecture was to have 
been given by Mr. Briggs on the scene, but the copious rain 
of Sunday and Monday interfered with this portion of the 
programme. 
A singing moth was captured at night. It was an active 
mover, and a ceaseless singer that emitted a sound like a 
diminutive creak of one of the Cicadidae. It made a rapid 
circular flight, and was very difficult to capture, but there are 
few flying things able to elude the net of the entomologist. A 
dexterous sweep—and the singer’s note was ended. 
Half a dozen enthuisasts who dared the heavy storm clouds 
to shed their moisture upon them went to Bulbararing and 
returned soaked to the skin. They found the best fields for 
observation unapproachable on account of the heavy sea, but 
the botanists among them were pleased with the lavish dis- 
_ play of the red fruit of the Macrozamia—the palm with which 
most people of the towns of the coast are familiarised on 
Palm Sunday. This..eautiful palm ig a-Cicad—the oldest 
form of vegetation found in the coal measure. The red, 
‘fleshy, astringent envelope covers a hard nut in which is a 
“white. kernel. From this kernel Messrs. R. T. Baker and 
Smith, of the Technological Museum, have made a yery fine 
arrowroot. So luxuriantly was the Macrozamia fruiting that 
the thought was impelled that it might be cultivated on a 
commercial scale. The seed after it falls upon the ground 
gradually loses its tough skin and the hard shell beneath it 
is exposed to the elements, which it resists for a long time. 
Under the influence of excessive heat, such as is afforded by a 
bush fire, the shell of the nut is calcined and the interior has 
an opportunity of reaching the parent soil. 
The rain ended most of the planned excursions, and these 
had to be cancelled in favour of indoor classifying, the fixing 
and mounting of specimens, and amusements. Surf and la- 
goon bathing naturally filled in some of the time, and part of 
