In the very centre of the continent there exists an elevated tract of country known as the Macdonnell Ranges. These mountains, barren and rugged in the extreme, rise to an altitude of nearly 5,000 feet above sea level, while the country surrounding them has an elevation of about 2,000 feet above the sea level, and slopes away towards the coast on every side, which at no point is nearer than 1,000 miles. The mountains are at the head of the Finke River; the region is called Larapintine from the native name of the river. The existence of these ranges saves that portion of the continent from being an absolute desert, as they catch the tropical showers, which flow down the sides of the mountains, and cause inundations in the low country, and a spring of grass, which, however, is not permanent, the rainfall being from five to twelve inches annually. These ranges measure, from east to west, about 400 miles, with a width of from twenty to fifty miles, the entire area covering more than 10,000 square miles of country. Apart from these ranges, there are several remarkable isolated masses, about 32 miles S.S.W. from Lake Amadeus. Rising like an enormous water-worn boulder, half buried in the surrounding sea of sand hills, is that remarkable monolith known as "Ayers' Rock." Its summit can be seen more than forty miles away, as it rises about 1,100 feet above the surrounding plain. The circumference at its base is nearly five miles, and its sides are so steep as to be practically inaccessible, although Mr. W. C. Gosse, the explorer, succeeded with great difficulty in ascending it. It is quite bare of vegetation, except a few fig trees growing in the crevices. Fifteen miles west of Ayers' Rock is another remarkable mountain mass called Mount Olga, rising to 1,500 feet from the plain. The Finke River flows south from these Macdonnell Ranges towards Lake Eyre, and water is only found after floods. Both alluvial gold and quartz reefs are found in the ranges. Professor Ralph Tate, of the University of Adelaide, and Mr. J. A. Watt, of the Sydney University, assisted in drawing up the report. CHAPTER IV. EXPLORERS IN NORTH QUEENSLAND. The second journey of Edmund Kennedy, in 1848, was confined to the east coast of North Queensland, and is one of the most mournful narratives of disaster and death; only three of the party returning out of the thirteen that started. The party was hampered with an unsuitable outfit of drays, as well as some undesirable men, unused to the bush and out of accord with the objects of an exploring expedition. The members of a party going into an unknown country have to depend on the fidelity of each to all, and according to the devotion displayed by each, so will success or failure attend the expedition. Kennedy had men in his party he had better have left behind.