BY FRANK HANN. 29 



north-west over four miles of splendid cattle country. Going to 

 the top of another rocky mountain, I succeeded in getting some 

 bearings of a number of high mountains to the west of north. 

 The creek then went into a gorge and for twelve miles we had 

 fearfully rough country, nearly breaking the legs of two horses 

 amongst the rocks. One horse had a bad fall. In the gorge 

 the blacks' fires were visible. 



It would require a man greedy of trouble who would want 

 rougher country to travel over. We went down the range, and 

 struck the creek again. It had now assumed the dimentions of 

 young river, a large creek from the south-west having joined it. 

 The plains here have plenty of mimosa but the grass is coarse, 

 and the surrounding ridges are all basaltic, causing the horses 

 to lose a great many shoes. 



I now moved the camp four miles down the river where I found 

 good country but the ranges came down rather close. Another 

 large creek came in here from the east, which I have named the 

 Charnley, after Mr. Wallace Charnley, of the Nullagine. The 

 big creek I called the Maudie. Here my boys caught ninety 

 black bream. There must be a great number of blacks aboui^ 

 here, as I saw several of their fires towards the south, one of 

 them quite close to our camp. There was still a big range to 

 descend, as my aneroid showed this camp to be 1000 feet above 

 Derby. 



Running the river down for 4 miles I found another nice 

 little river coming in from N.N.E. Judging from the amount 

 of water that came down it in a flood it must run a long 

 distance. This I named the James, after Mr. James, of the 

 Cable Station, Petang. Another river comes in from the North, 

 8 miles below the James through a fearful looking gorge. On 

 the N.E. side of the river the range continues for the whole 

 distance, and there are basalt ridges on the opposite side. I 

 called this river the Pearson, after the Police- Sergeant at Derby. 

 The grass here was very plentiful, but coarse, and there are 

 many high mountains which I believe I have placed fairly 

 correctly. One I named after my late brother. Mount 

 William, the other Mount Grosser. This is a most re- 

 markable hill rising like a castle. I doubt if anyone could 

 reach the top even on foot. Twenty miles back from the river 

 rises a hill which I named Mount Shadforth, after Mr. Robert 

 Shadforth, of Queensland, Avho helped me in the hour of need. 

 Another I entitled Mount Kerr, in honour of Mr. Kerr, of the 

 Nullagine. Mount Nicholson and Mount Blythe were also named 



