Lizards are abundant, especially a large Monitor, which, when disturbed, astonishes one by the noise which it makes in scampering over the stones and dead twigs to its burrow, or if this be not at hand, to seek the protection of some friendly tree, up which it climbs with extraordinary facility. They are easily shot. When first I saw their burrows, I considered them to be the work of some burrowing marsupial, and accordingly set a cage-trap opposite the entrance of one. On returning next day, I found, to my surprise, a large Monitor coiled up inside the trap, whose dimensions were so small in proportion to the size of the reptile, that the wonder was how he ever managed to stow himself inside. We encountered few snakes, and from inquiries were led to believe that few, if any, poisonous ones existed. However, they are said not to show themselves much during the dry season, which among these islands is supposed to be their time for hybernating.
One day, when exploring in company with Haswell, we found portions of the carapace and pincer-claw of a land-crab (most likely a species of Geograpsus), an animal not previously recorded from the islands. On examining the beds of dry mountain gullies, and digging into sand-choked crevices between spurs of rock, where a certain amount of moisture existed, I subsequently obtained several live specimens. No doubt, during the wet season they might be more easily obtained.
Thursday Island possesses six species of land-shells. They are Helix kreffti, H. delessertiana, H. spaldingi, H. buxtoni, Bulimus beddomei, and Helicina reticulata. During our stay the island was fired, in order to remove the "spear-grass," which is so destructive to cattle. The fire spread over the whole island, and continued to rage for several days, consuming not only all the grass, but also a great quantity of scrub, and laying bare a vast extent of arid stony surface. It was now an easy matter to collect land-shells, for they lay dead in prodigious numbers on the bare summits of the hills as well as in the hollows, gullies, and other more likely places.
This fire was a great blow to my hopes of collecting plants, almost all the herbaceous ones and many of the creepers having been consumed or shrivelled up by the heat of the conflagration. After much trouble I succeeded in obtaining five species of ferns, which I fancy is not far short of the entire number. Among these were the Nephrolepis acuta, Pulæa nitida, Polypodium quercifolium, Lindsaya ensifolia, and the common Australian form, Lygodium scandens.
The avifauna of the different islands is, as might be expected, of a similar character to, and differs very little, if at all, from that of the adjoining part of the mainland of Australia. The list of birds includes species of the genera Campephaga, Ptilotis, Pachycephala, Myzomela, Nectarinia, Dicæum, Trichoglossus, Artamus, Mimeta, Halcyon, Nycticorax, Plictolophus, Chalcophaps, Erythrauchena, Geopelia, Ptilinopus, Myiagra, Sauloprocta, Sphecotheres, Chibia, Centropus, Graucalus, Grallina, Donacola, Tropidorhynchus, Climacteris, Megapodius, Œdicnemus, Ægialitis, Merops, Dacelo, Bruchigavia, Sterna, Pelicanus, Hæmatopus, and others. At Booby Island, a small rocky islet in mid-channel, affording no cover beyond a few bushes growing in a cleft in the rocks, we found no less than twelve species of land-birds. These were the Ptilinopus superbus, P. swainsoni, Myiagra plumbea, Nectarinia australis, Megapodius tumulus, Porphyrio melanotus, Halcyon sanctus, Nycticorax caledonicus, a Zosterops, a yellow-breasted flycatcher, a landrail, and a quail. From the discrepancies between the different records of the birds found on this island, there is reason to believe that it is mainly used as a temporary resting-place for birds of passage. The "mound bird" (Megapodius tumulus) is probably, however, a regular inhabitant.
In examining the cliffs of this island, in quest of sea-birds' nests, I noticed, considerably above the reach of the highest tide, some smooth basin-shaped cavities in the rock containing rounded water-worn stones, such as one sees in the rock pools between tide marks. This circumstance would point to an upheaval of the island during recent geological times.
We sailed from Torres Straits on October 1st, and proceeded under steam towards Port Darwin, in North-West Australia, sounding and dredging on our way, and eventually coming to an anchor in Port Darwin on October 20th. The settlement of Palmerston, off which we lay, is the seat of government for the northern territory of the colony of South Australia, whose capital, Adelaide, is about 1,800 miles away on the south coast, and is separated from Port Darwin by an enormous patch of uncivilized country extending for about 1,500 miles in a north and south direction.
The foundation of a settlement at Port Darwin, which took place about ten years ago (1872), was practically due to the completion of the submarine cable and land telegraph lines, which have each got terminal stations at Port Darwin, where the "through" messages are transferred. Its subsequent progress, such as it has been, was encouraged and fostered by the trade in provisions and gold induced by the workers at the northern territory gold-fields. There are now two submarine cables connecting Port Darwin with Singapore, viâ Java, and thence with Europe. The first was laid in 1872, and was found most difficult to maintain on account of the ravages made in it by a boring mollusc, a species of Teredo, which in an amazingly short space of time pierced the galvanized iron-wire sheathing of the cable, and destroyed the insulation of the copper core. The repairs of this cable necessitated an outlay of £20,000 per annum, a circumstance contrasting strangely with the condition of a similar cable in the China and India seas, which is not attacked by the Teredo. Recently a duplicate cable has been laid, in the construction of which a tape of muntz metal was wound round in a spiral fashion between the insulating material and the twisted wire sheathing. By this provision the new cable has been rendered proof against the boring effects of the Teredo, and has hitherto worked successfully without the slightest hitch.
The land telegraph line stretches directly from Port Darwin to Adelaide, a distance of about 1,800 miles, and thus serves to connect all the principal towns of Australia with the station of the Cable Company at Port Darwin. It was at one time thought that there would have been much difficulty in inducing the aborigines to abstain from meddling with the overland wire, but experience has not justified this impression. It appears that the black fellows hold it sacred, looking on it as a sort of boundary mark to separate the white man's territory from theirs.
Palmerston contains a police magistrate, who is the chief executive authority in the northern territory; a lands department, with its staff of surveyors; a police inspector, with a detachment of white troopers; a government doctor; the two telegraph stations, with their separate staffs of telegraphists; and, of necessity, a jail.