ALBATEOSS BAY AND THE EMBLEY AND 

 HEY KIYEES. 



With Map (Plate iii). 



By F. C. URQUHART. 



[Head before the Roijal Societi/ of (Jueenslancl, M<n/ 9, 1896.] 



Early in December, 1895, it was reported to tlie Hon. John 

 Douglas, Government Resident at Thursday Island, by Mr. J. T. 

 Embley, that he had succeeded in reaching his station, York 

 Downs, some 30 miles inland from the west coast of the Cape 

 York Peninsula, in a cutter drawing three feet of water, by 

 means of a river emptying into the large bay situated between 

 Duyfhen Point and Pera Head on the west coast of the penin- 

 sula. About the same time Mr. Hey, of the Moravian Mission 

 to Aborigines, at the Batavia Eiver, reported that he had seen 

 the mouth of a large river emptying into the same bay. Six 

 years before this I had seen two large openings in the coast-line 

 of the bay, but I had then no opportunity or time for explorations. 

 Mr. Douglas, with the spirit of his New Guinea explorations 

 strong within him, determined that this part of Queensland 

 should no longer remain a terra mcoi/nita, and on the 15th Decem- 

 ber, 1895, he left Thursday Island in the Government steamer 

 Albatross, accompanied by me, to examine the bay and the 

 reported rivers. 



It should be borne in mind that with the exception of some 

 work done by Mr. CuUen, of the Harbours and Elvers Depart- 

 ment, at the mouth of the Batavia River, there has been no 

 nautical survey of this coast since 1802, when Flinders in the 

 Investigator first ploughed these waters with a Royal Naval keel. 

 The coast- line is not accurately delineated on the charts, and the 



