9 
nation of this locality, we continued on a bearing of 339° for five 
and a half miles across well-grassed flats sparsely timbered with 
mulga, and occasional slight stony undulations until we reached 
the Goyder river at the road crossmg. The main party arrived 
shortly afterwards, and as it is our intention to stay here to-morrow 
a temporary camp was formed. ‘The river does not appear to have 
been in flood for many years past, and our prospects of finding, as 
we had hoped to do, well-watered country to the westward are not 
encouraging. Just at this point water is obtained from a large 
hole scooped in the sand of the creek bed, and from a well some 
12ft. deep sunk in the creek. That procured from the latter, 
though only a sand soakage, is of excellent quality. A special 
kind of water frog was obtained by the black boys to-day on 
Boggy Flat, a few miles S.E. of the Goyder. 
Tuesday, May 15th.—Camp No. 10, Goyder river; bar. 29°39in., 
ther. 39°; lat. 25° 38’ 50” S., long. 134° 39’ K.; height 677ft. above 
sea level. Mr. Horn to-day formally transferred the leadership 
and supreme control of the expedition to myself. I was engaged 
throughout the day in preparing for a visit to Ayers Range, 
Professor Spencer, Dr. Stirling, and Mr. Watt volunteering to 
accompany me. In the evening Mr. Ross, a veteran explorer 77 
years of age. arrived at our camp. In consequence of information 
obtained from him our original plans for visiting Ayers Range by 
the way of the Goyder were somewhat altered. It was decided. 
that the main party should travel to Crown Point, and thence to a 
waterhole in the Lilla Creek described as Ross Camp. I deter- 
mined, with Mr. Horn’s approval, to carry out part of the first 
scheme and traverse the Goyder some distance westward, then 
cross on to the Lilla Creek, and finally join the main party at Ross 
Camp on Friday next. Mr. Watt volunteered to accompany me 
on this trip. Several black cockatoos were obtained to-day for the 
ornithological collection. Magpies were seen for the first time. 
Wednesday, May 16th.—Camp No. 10; bar. 29°15in., ther. 41°. 
I set out at 8-45 a.m. accompanied by Mr. Watt and Harry the 
black boy, taking three camels and one horse, together with, we 
imagined, three days’ rations and l5galls. of water, the main 
party having been instructed to proceed to Crown Point later in 
the day. We started on a bearing of 295° 10’; crossing to the 
northern side of the Goyder we passed over sandy soil with an 
occasional outcrop of desert sandstone clothed with porcupine 
grass and mulga. At two and a half miles we ascended a small 
stony rise and alrered our bearing to 265° 10’. At one and a half 
miles from this point we crossed to the south side of the Goyder 
river and entered some high red sandridges running 165° east. of 
