ISTATEN RIVER TO JARDINE RIVER 319 



On the i6th of January, 1865, it is stated that the FEET AND 

 LEGS of the men had been CUT IN PIECES by the thorny vines. 

 [From my own experience in the same district I can testify that 

 such WOUNDS are more or less POISONED and are difficult to heal. 

 R. L. J.] With considerable reluctance, but driven by necessity, 

 the men packed up and RESUMED THEIR JOURNEY. It had rained 

 in the morning, but the weather cleared as the day went on. Five 

 miles from Camp 69, the party descended gradually into a valley 

 and crossed, " the horses bogging a little ; a smaller stream of 

 excellent water running to the west. A little further on a deeper 

 creek, but sandy and firm, water also running knee-deep in the 

 same direction." Richardson, from whom the above quotation 

 is taken, conjectured that the last creek mentioned was one of the 

 heads of the Batavia River. It was, in fact, the " ROCKY CREEK " 

 of the subsequent Telegraph survey, and if he had crossed it 

 twenty-two years later he might have seen the telegraph wire 

 above his head. Unhappily no such infallible guide to Cape York 

 cheered the foot-sore wanderers. 



Rocky Creek, according to the Telegraph survey, is one of the 

 heads of what appears on the modern 4-mile map as the DUCIE 

 RIVER. Five or six miles l further, the PALM CREEK of the Tele- 

 graph survey was crossed, and at 15! miles from Camp 69, the 

 party camped (CAMP 70) on the north, or right, bank of a creek 

 which the Brothers named the DALHUNTY. It is described as 

 " ten yards wide ; water knee-deep and running slowly to the 

 westward : banks steep." This DALHUNTY RIVER, DE JURE, has 

 unalterably become the SOUTH ALICE CREEK, DE FACTO. 



The PALM CREEK of the Telegraph survey, according to Mr. 

 Embley (in a recent letter to me) where it crosses the line, " has 

 a big channel and carries a large volume of flood water." 



Shortly after the construction of the telegraph line, in which 

 Frank Jardine took part, he changed the name of Palm Creek to 

 the DUCIE RIVER, in honour of the Earl of Ducie. He ran the 

 river down westward for some 20 miles, where he established 

 BERTIE HAUGH STATION (named for his own son). He found that 

 20 miles further west, the river ran into PORT MUSGRAVE, the com- 

 mon estuary of the DALHUNTY (de jacto) and the DUCIE and 

 BATAVIA RIVERS. 



On this day's march (i6th January, 1865), Richardson refers 

 for the first time for many months to something resembling a 

 range. " They walked," he says, " over some high ridges, or one 

 might almost say LOW RANGES ; there does not appear to be a dis- 

 tinct range, merely a succession of gradually ascending ridges, 

 which are not well grassed." They were now, in fact, getting on 

 to the sandstone shelf which lies west of my " Sir William Thomson 



1 Distances over-estimated, for a reason which it is easy to understand, viz., the 

 " difficulty " equation. 



