PRINCESS CHARLOTTE BAY 395 



to Hann, alligator steaks are something of a dainty, as the aboriginals 

 must have been well aware. 



The " eastern branch " which Hann followed was one of the 

 channels by which the NORM AN BY proper leaks into Therrimburi 

 Creek, the conjoined water-course forming the mouth of the 

 Normanby which at present (rather unhappily) bears the name of 

 the " North Kennedy River." After following this channel for 

 7 miles, CAMP 39 was pitched on a swamp near the point 

 where the channel leaves the Normanby proper. 



The position of CAMP 41 is fixed by the sketch-map, and subse- 

 quent conversations with Hann and correspondence with Taylor 

 have left me in no doubt that it was on the NORMANBY RIVER due 

 north of the " Welcome " Station on the Cooktown-Laura Railway. 

 According to the 4-mile map, the distance between Camps 39 and 

 41 is 55 miles, and yet Hann's diary relates that this distance was 

 covered in two stages, of 21 and 8$ miles respectively, leaving 253- 

 miles unaccounted for. There may have been some carelessness 

 in making, or error in transcribing the Leader's notes, or, as he had 

 very " easy going," he travelled faster than he knew and did not 

 apply the necessary correction. In any case, a journey of 55 miles 

 in two days with a team of horses that had been so long on the road 

 and living on grass only, was a feat which speaks eloquently of the 

 care with which the members of the expedition had " nursed " their 

 riding and baggage animals. 



Taking into consideration the fact that Hann's diary and map 

 give the distance between Camps 39 and 41 as 29$ miles, whereas 

 the modern 4-mile map makes it 55 as the crow flies, the position 

 of Camp 40 is very much in doubt. It was probably either on 

 Embley's Jack River or his Brown Creek. I am inclined to decide 

 in favour of the former, which, at all events, Hann must have 

 crossed, whether he camped on it or not. The total distance 

 (Camp 39 to Camp 41) covered by Hann, which he divides into 

 two stages of 21 and 8 miles, must be proportionately stretched 

 to include the 25$ miles unaccounted for by him. If I am right, 

 the second day's journey (\6th September} would be 23 miles to 

 CAMP 41 on the NORMANBY. The river here has now been known 

 for many years, both popularly and officially, as the Normanby, 

 and has a valley of its own, with no confusion of branches anasto- 

 mosing with other rivers or of mouths each claiming to be the " main 

 stream." At Camp 41 it was running from east to west. 



In the course of the day, Hann observed some women and 

 children on a lagoon fishing with a net. NATIVES were also seen 

 by Tate and Jerry, who were travelling in the rear of the procession, 

 and TATE BROUGHT A LITTLE BOY INTO THE CAMP, mounted on the 

 front of the saddle, the boy apparently happy in his novel experience. 

 '' In the afternoon, Jerry and the little boy strolled out together in 

 search of wild honey, but returned in a short time followed by a 



