100 WHITE. Trip to Cape York Peninsula. TisfocT 



Coen, situated on the head waters of a rixer of the same name, 

 and so called (in honour of Governor Coen, of Batavia ) by the 

 early Dutch navigator Jan Carstenzcjon during his voyage in the ■ 

 ships Arnhem and Pera in 1623, and is i)robably one of the 

 first-named rivers in Australia. Some confusion existed as to 

 the identity of the River Coen, and the matter is explained by 

 R. Logan Jack in his "Northmost Australia," page 49. The 

 same writer gives particulars of gold mining operations carried 

 out later in the Coen district (page 467) where one mine, "Great 

 Northern," is stated to have produced £114,000 worth of gold. 

 The Coen of today has fallen away in importance, a few pros- 

 pectors only rei)resenting the gold mining industry ; it is prac- 

 tically surrounded b)- cattle stations owned chiefly by the State, 

 and is a telegraph station on the line to Thursday Island. 



The country in the vicinity is of granite formation, hilly, it 

 being practically on the main range; well timbered with various 

 species of Eucalypts, Melaleucas, and Acacias. It is well grassed, 

 the chief kinds being Hcteropogon, .Indropogon and Themida 

 (Northern Kangaroo grass), two first named producing most 

 objectionable seeds, which penetrate clothing, and make travel- 

 ling most unpleasant and dit^icult during the autumn months. 



McLennan reached his collecting locality early in September, 

 and remained there for about nine months, securing many rare 

 specimens of birds, eggs, reptiles and insects ; amongst which 

 is a giant venomous snake at present not identified, but which is 

 probably a new and highly interesting species. Owing to the 

 very favourable climate, trees in bloom \\ere always in evidence, 

 l)roviding abundant food for honey-eating birds, which, in conse- 

 quence, appeared to breed all the year round. 



Descriptions of Country, Excursions and Experiences 



The nature of the country and some of the ex]ieriences of a 

 collecting trip may be gathered by extracts from the diary, which 

 is v(jluminous and too full of carefully kept details to be used 

 at length here. The diary is punctuated with many droll 

 expressions. 



The ri\er Hals, \allo\s and gullies are mostly well limbered, 

 and birds appear to be fairly numerous. The bed of the river 

 is about 100 yards in width, heavily timbered with tall thin 

 ])ai)er barks, river wattles and numerous scrub trees, also a bushy 

 tea-tree (Melaleuca), a mass of bottle-brush flowers. Two large 

 leafed varieties in November and again in IMarch were in full 

 flower, one beautiful cerise coloured, the other greenish yellow. 



The track coming into Coen runs through level heavily tim- 

 bered forest country, bloodwood, box, Moreton Bay ash, cabbage 

 gum, river gum, wattle, ironwood, beefwood, wild cotton, and 

 many other trees and shrubs. There ajipears to be a big break 

 in the coastal scrub belt hereabi)uts. B.ird life numerous. We 

 pas.sed through the track of a cyclone, trees and branches down 

 everywhere, and piles of debris. Standing trees now heavily 



