FROM THE PALMER TO THE PASCOE 219 



being aware of it ; but the valleys on sandstone tablelands are not, 

 as a rule, separated by " ranges." The " sandy creek " of the 

 CAMP of z6to September was the " STATION CREEK " of modern 

 maps, about 5 miles south of MULLIGAN'S ROUTE (1875), between 

 his 8oth and 8ist camps, and which he (Mulligan) named the 

 WARNER RIVER. 



In this place it becomes necessary to refer once more to the 

 comedy of errors arising out of the multiplication of " Kennedy " 

 Rivers and Creeks. The river which Kennedy is supposed to 

 have followed down towards Princess Charlotte Bay is placed in 

 Carron's sketch map on the I44th meridian of east latitude, and 

 this was, of course, the only river in these parts then known to 

 geographers. In what is practically the same map, attached to 

 A. J. Richardson's Overland Expedition from Port Denison to Cape 

 York under the Command of F. and A. Jar dine, Esqrs., in 1865, 

 this river appears as the " Kennedy River." It was not known, 

 even at that date, that quite a number of rivers run northward 

 into Princess Charlotte Bay, their mouths anastomosing when 

 they reach the coastal plain. From east to west, these now appear 

 on the maps as the Laura River, Normanby River, Kennedy Creek, 

 Kennedy River, North Kennedy River and Hann River. The 

 first of the " Kennedy " group, viz., Kennedy Creek, might 

 advantageously be renamed. The Kennedy River, long known as 

 such by the thousands who have come and gone between Cooktown 

 and the Palmer, and the largest of the group, should retain the 

 name of the revered explorer who was the first to reach Princess 

 Charlotte Bay by land. To the whole of the so-called North 

 Kennedy, the name of Therrimburi Creek, which is borne by its 

 upper reach, should be applied. It was BETWEEN THERRIMBURI 

 CREEK AND THE HANN RIVER (named by Mulligan) that KENNEDY 

 TRAVELLED northward in 1848. 



On 2jth September, the party travelled over sandy ridges and 

 marshy flats subject to inundation. The CAMP was made at a 

 rocky creek containing very little water, probably the WARNER 

 RIVER (STATION CREEK), where it takes an easterly course before 

 falling into the so-called " North Kennedy River " (Therrimburi 

 Creek). The SALT WATER came up the creek to the camp, but 

 fresh water was obtained in a lagoon. 



For the next two days (28^ and 29^ September), a halt was 

 necessitated by the STRAYING of the SHEEP. 



The SHEEP are only once again referred to in Carron's narrative, 

 viz., on nth November, when the last was killed at the Pascoe 

 camp, and it may be surmised that the majority were finally LOST 

 here, as the party evidently subsisted for the rest of the way to the 

 Pascoe mainly on horseflesh, a little flour and what game they 

 could shoot. When we last took stock of the sheep, on I4th 

 August, 60 were left of the original 100. Since that date, reckoning 



