30 EXPLORATION IN WESTKKN AUSTRALIA 



by me after Mr. Nicholson, of the Derby poHce, who was with 

 me for some years, and Mr. IJIythe respectively. I then had to 

 shoe twenty horses, and in the evening I put shoes on four more. 



The river now came round to the S.W. for four miles, after 

 which its course was generally West. For 8 miles the country 

 is good, but fearfully stony. I now had to leave the river as it& 

 banks were too rough to travel over. By keeping South I hoped 

 to g;'t down the range. The shoes were being lost wholesale, 

 the nails were nearly all gone, and there seemed to be a bad time 

 looming ahead for unshod horses. The flood marks here were very 

 hi wh . As we rode along the country was something fearful for stones, 

 and the river had cut clean through a big range. To look along 

 that range it would appear incredible that any river could cut 

 its way through it, yet it has done so. The range is covered 

 with immense stones, slippery as glass, affording no footing for 

 a horse. I never saw basalt hills so high before. They are 

 covered with splendid grass, and spiniiix does not appear. 

 Needless to say that the country is splendidly watered. I at 

 last ran out of horseshoe nails and had lost a number of shoes 

 which I could not replace. Here the big range appears to end. 

 I noticed thousands of a new kind of palm growing 

 on the range, and my boys cut a number down to 

 get at the succulent head which forms a splendid vegetable, 

 something like cabbage. This range I have named the f^dkins, 

 in remembrance of my partner in Queensland. To the South 

 there was a very high tableland, of which I had seen 

 but 20 miles, and have called it the Synott Tableland, after 

 Mr. Synott, of Queensland, who helped me on my trip out to 

 Western Australia. A high mountain I named the Kennie, 

 after Mr. Kennie, of the Cable Station, Broome. I noticed 

 blacks' tracks all about us, and we were unfortunately 

 camped in a very bad place, 450 feet above Derby. 



The following day's travelling was much the same as I had 

 lately experienced, fair but stony, with grand grass and springs 

 everywhere. In years to come this will be grand cattle country. 

 I left the river, hoping to get round the range. There is only 

 one way to get on to this river from Hall's Creek, and that is- 

 down the James River. 



Next day I ran the creek down in a west-south-west 

 direction, but had to keep out, as the country was so fearfully 

 stony. The creek I found to pass into one of the worst gorges 

 I had seen on the trip. I camped on a fine spring, having- 

 crossed three running streams in six miles, and meeting with 



