NORTHMOST AUSTRALIA 



then stood off ; and the water being smooth, anchored on muddy ground in 4^ fathoms, 

 which became 3^ at low water." 



The position of this anchorage is not given on Flinders' own 

 chart. The " small opening " in 17 26', which Flinders thought 

 might be TASMAN'S CARON RIVER, was the mouth of the modern 

 NORMAN RIVER, which was named the VAN DIEMEN REVIER by 

 TASMAN in 1644. The precise position of the mouth, according 

 to Captain John Lort Stokes' survey of 1844,' is 17 28'. Stokes 

 suggests, by a dotted line entering the sea in 17 23', the position 

 of the CARON RIVER, and in this position, according to the Lands 

 Department Map, Sheet 19 A, there actually appears an insig- 

 nificant water-course. But it is easier to believe that Flinders' 

 position was two minutes too far north than that it was three 

 minutes too far south, and the mouth of the NORMAN RIVER, 

 however little Flinders may have thought of its possibilities, is 

 a genuine " opening " and is at the present day the port for 

 Normanton and the Croydon goldfield. Granting that the 

 modern NORMAN RIVER is TASMAN'S VAN DIEMEN (and there seems 

 no room for doubt), his VAN DER LIJN'S REVIER was the " Bynoe " 

 mouth of the FLINDERS RIVER, and his CARON REVIER was the 

 principal mouth of the Flinders. Flinders' course after he saw 

 (from a distance) the mouth of what he erroneously took for 

 the Caron was too far from the land to permit of his seeing the 

 Van der Lijn and Caron Inlets. 



As Flinders, when he altered his course after passing the 

 supposed Caron Inlet, passed out of the waters of the Cape York 

 Peninsula, it is unnecessary for us to follow his further progress 

 with critical minuteness. Some observations on the character 

 of his work are, however, in place here. 



From his earliest youth, Flinders had put before himself a 

 lofty ideal, his constant endeavour, as he declared, being to do 

 his work in such a manner that no one should have to come after 

 him to correct it. Incidentally, it may be mentioned that he 

 carried a chronometer, and his longitudes are reliable, which 

 even Cook's were not. The chronometer was first adapted to 

 navigation by James Harrison in 1735." It had been officially 

 tested on a voyage to Barbados in 1763, when its efficiency was 

 demonstrated, and it is odd that Cook was not furnished with 

 one, and had to rely mainly on lunar observations for his longi- 

 tudes.' In a word, the accuracy of Flinders' own work along the 

 western coast of the Cape York Peninsula was beyond praise. 

 On the other hand, his interpretation of the work of previous 



1 Admiralty Chart, No. 1807. 



3 See The Royal Observatory of Greenwich, by E. Walter Maunder, London, 1900. 

 I am indebted to Mr. G. F. Dodwell, B.A., Government Astronomer, South Australia, 

 for this reference. 



3 Wharton's Captain Cook's Journal, p. xxvii. 



