THE PERTH MUSEUM.
A COLLECTING EXPEDITION.
VISIT OF MR. ALEXANDER MORTON.
When the last sitting of the Federal Council was in progress at Hobart,
the West Australian representatives included in the persons of Sir James
Lee-Steere and Mr. J. W. Hackett two members of the Perth Public Library
and Museum committee. Mr. Justice Stone, also a member of the committee,
was also on a visit at the time. The gentlemen named visited the Hobart
Museum, and came into contact with the authorities of that institution,
and the outcome of the visit was a suggestion that Mr. Alexander Morton,
the curator of the Hobart Museum and secretary of the Tasmanian Royal
Society, should make a trip to West Australia and a tour over certain
portions of the colony, with the object of collecting biological,
ethnological and other specimens, on the joint behalf of the museums of
the two colonies. The matter, on the return of the members of the Perth
Museum committee to this colony, was laid before the whole committee, and
the outcome was a formal proposition to the Hobart authorities to the
effect suggested. The proposition was approved, and leave of absence was
given to Mr. Morton to proceed to West Australia. Mr. Morton arrived a
week ago and has already commenced his excursion, having left Perth on
Saturday morning on the route decided upon.
A representative of the WEST AUSTRALIAN had a conversation with Mr. Morton
shortly before his departure, and from him gleaned some interesting
information regarding his plans and the prospects of the enrichment of the
Perth Museum by exchange with that of Hobart. The plan which had been
decided upon for his excursion was to proceed to Minginew, where an
officer of the Perth Museum, Mr. Tunney, would join him. Thence they would
proceed by vehicle in the direction of Cue, making a halt and camping at
any places which would repay search for specimens for the museum. “We will
proceed from Cue in the direction of Lake Way,” Mr. Morton added, “where I
am told that at certain times of the year there is a large variety of
water fowl to be found, as well as other bird life. At several lakes in
that country, one of which is Lake Darlôt, I am told there are numbers of
bones of gigantic fossil marsupials of the diprotodon species, and
associated with these bones, as in the Wellington caves in New South Wales
and other parts of Australia, may also be found the remains of many
interesting forms of life of the tertiary period. From there we shall
probably go on to Lake Carey and then work our way back to Perth. I am
told by Mr. Woodward that the route that has been selected, as far as
biological research is concerned, is practically new. Of course in a trip
of this kind there is a good deal of chance—we may be successful in
dropping across a good many specimens, and again we may find little. I
intend to pay particular attention to the smaller class of animals which
exist in the interior country, and I believe that in the dry sandy plains
which we travel across we may be able to find specimens of the marsupial
mole that was first discovered in the course of the trip of the Earl of
Kintore across the continent from Port Darwin to Adelaide, and which has
lately been described by Dr. Stirling of the Adelaide University. The
description of the animal was received with the greatest interest
throughout the scientific world. I am anxious to pay particular attention
to ethnology during the trip. The natives of West Australia, like those of
other parts of the continent, are a decaying race, and specimens of their
weapons and handiwork, with information regarding their customs,
languages, etc., will be of permanent value. There is in West Australia a
great field for biological research, as comparatively little has been done
in this respect as yet.
The Perth Museum is not rich in Tasmanian specimens, and interest
therefore attaches to the fact that a collection from the Hobart Museum
left for Perth on the 10th of the present month as an instalment of a
collection intended for the local museum. Amongst these, Mr. Morton
explained, are specimens of the Tasmanian tiger and Tasmanian devil, which
are peculiar to Tasmania, and which, though frequently confounded, are
totally distinct animals. Casts of the faces of some of the last of the
Tasmanian aborigines are also being sent. The Tasmanian aboriginal
population was for the most part ruthlessly exterminated in the early days
of the colony. Relics of the race, now extinct, are of the highest
scientific value. Specimens of Tasmanian aboriginal handiwork are
extremely rare. The Hobart Museum possesses a few spears and nullah
nullahs and a few reed baskets and other articles, but these,
scientifically speaking, are priceless, and there are none to spare. It is
a curious fact that only two specimens of the native canoe exist, and
neither of these is in the Hobart Museum. The collection being sent to the
Perth Museum, however, includes several specimens of the aboriginal stone
axes, which are naturally more common than the perishable wooden
implements. The collection will include specimens of Tasmanian birds and
marsupials, and of ores from the principal mines of the island.
