44 ALBATROSS IJAY, ETC. 



lighting up the whole made up a picture which in twenty years 

 wanderings in the northern bush I have nsver seen equalled. 

 Eleven miles up on the north-eastern side, Karracoo Creek 

 junctions with the Embley as shown on the plan. This is the 

 creek up which Mr. Embley took supplies in the cutter Maori to 

 his station, York Downs, situated in the York Peninsula, thirty 

 miles from the Moreton Telegraph Station. Opposite this 

 junction we landed on the south-western side, getting four 

 fathoms right into the bank, and walked some two miles along 

 the river aljout half a mile back from it. The soil appeared a 

 fine rich loam, and samples were taken of it for the Agricultural 

 Department. The grass was chiefly kangaroo grass, but here 

 and there I noticed Flinders grass. The country was open forest 

 extending back from the river as far as we could see, and the 

 timber was chiefly fine blood wood and messmate — the latter very 

 straight and tall. From the numbers of birds about and from 

 the presence of large numbers of natives, I judged there was 

 plenty of fresh water about, and this was confirmed by blacks 

 Avho came on board the Alhatroas later in the day, and who, 

 though perfect savages, without a vestige of clothing or a sign of 

 civilization about them, were most friendly ; and they seemed a 

 very well fed happy lot a — sure sign that this country was a good 

 and fruitful one. 



Returning to the steamer we resumed our course up the 

 river another three miles, bringing us up to the point named by 

 Mr. Douglas and shown on the plan as " Canoe Point," — the 

 channel all the way being never less than six fathoms and the 

 river and its banks presenting the same general features, but at 

 this point the river begins to trend more to the south. 



Here we turned round and steamed slowly down the river, 

 confirming our previous soundings as we went, and reaching our 

 previous anchorage off Point Urquhart, the fires were banked 

 and we turned in for the night, well satisfied with the past two 

 days' work, the net result of which was that we had found a 

 three-fathom channel from the open sea to the mouth of a 

 navigable river, and had explored that river for fourteen miles, 

 and had ascertained that here was rich country ready and adapted 

 for settlement, with a fine port accessible to coasting steamers. 



At daylight on the morning following I was off with my 

 whaleboat and crew endeavouring to find a channel across from 



