Central Australia is only now becoming known, as is Central Africa. An explorer tells the following about a wonderful "lake":
"We came, just at dusk, to the top of a sand hill, and saw Lake Amadeus lying at our feet. It was a strange sight. The bed of the lake was here only some three-quarters of a mile wide, but east and west it stretched away to the horizon, widening out, especially westwards, into a vast sheet many miles across. There was not a speck of water, only a dead level surface of white salt standing out against the rich after-glow on the west and the dull sky to the east, whilst north and south it was hemmed in by low hills covered with dark scrub."
To Amateur Paper Publishers.
Will publishers of amateur newspapers send sample copies to A. R. Abbott, 38 Franklin Street, Northampton, Massachusetts?
A Query in Natural History.
Some time ago, under the above heading, a caterpillar was described which is commonly called saddle-back or slug caterpillar. Naturalists know it by the euphonious title of Sibine stimulea, which tells us that the tufts of bristles have nettlelike powers of irritation. The name slug caterpillar is given it because, the abdominal legs being absent, it moves with a smooth, gliding, snail-like motion. It feeds on many plants and trees, such as corn, rose, cherry, pear, and apple. After spending some weeks feeding on the leaves, it spins a brown cocoon, nearly spherical, surrounded by a loose silken web, and about July 1 a small moth emerges.
It resembles those small moths commonly designated as "millers." The wings, which spread about one and one-half inches, are of a beautiful rich brown color, with a dark streak on the fore wings, near which are three whitish spots. Although nature has furnished the caterpillar with a protective armor of poisonous bristles, yet it does not seem to me to merit the epithet "hideous creature."
C. W. B.
East Orange, N. J.