STATEN RIVER TO JARDINE RIVER 323 



camp cannot have been more than 2 miles west of MY CAMP 53, 

 from which I DOUBLED BACK to the south, on 4th March, 1880, TO 

 AVOID the death of all my horses from STARVATION. 



The Brothers and Richardson agreed that this stream must be 

 the ESCAPE RIVER to which reference has so often been made, and 

 this theory, lightly formed, as it seems to me, and adhered to with 

 an amazing obstinacy, was destined to lead to the most serious 

 consequences. It is now known that the Escape River, which was 

 named by Captain King, R.N., on 24th July, 1819, and where 

 Kennedy met his death in 1848, " heads" not more than 13 miles 

 south of the point where it enters the Pacific 16 miles from 

 Somerset, whereas Camp 78 was at least 31 miles south of 

 the outlet. Acting on the theory they had adopted, the idea of the 

 Brothers was to get on the left bank of the river to avoid the swamps 

 which Jackey-Jackey's narrative had shown to exist near the mouth 

 of the Escape. 



