448 NORTHMOST AUSTRALIA 



steered south-west for Mount Surprise. In about 5 miles he must 

 have passed close to the INNOT HOT SPRINGS, on NETTLE CREEK, 

 of which his diary makes no mention. 1 His first camp (CAMP 24) 

 was 16 miles south-west of Camp 23, on " a very large creek with 

 deep red banks, running east," evidently RETURN CREEK. No 

 prospecting seems to have been done in Return Creek, which 

 afterwards became an important producer of stream tin, but Mulli- 

 gan remarks on the " rich blue grass, through which we can scarcely 

 force the horses, they keep eating so." He adds : " I wonder at 

 people being hard up for country, and all this lying idle here, so 

 near at hand." 



NETTLE and RETURN CREEKS were evidently flowing eastward 

 to swell the WILD RIVER (which below the infall of " The Mill- 

 stream " is named the HERBERT), and Mulligan had at last guessed 

 the truth, as he wrote at this camp : " I am now all but sure that 

 we must have crossed the main range about 7 miles south-west of 

 the scrub, at the head of this creek, and that we are now on eastern 

 waters, probably the Herbert River." 



On loth June, the party made 10 miles to the south-west, over 

 nearly flat country, with swamps and belts in which there was 

 " abundance of POISON PLANT." CAMP 25 was on what is now 

 called POISON CREEK. 



Continuing on the same course, the travellers, on nth June, 

 crossed MULLIGAN and EXPEDITION CREEKS near their heads, and 

 crossed the " MAIN DIVIDING RANGE," almost without being aware 

 of it, probably by what is now called " DOYLE'S TRACK," and camped 

 (CAMP 26) on the LYND side of the watershed, after a stage of 

 12 miles. 



It has long been the custom to speak of, and to map, the water- 

 shed of the Cape York Peninsula as the " Great Dividing Range " ; 

 but at the actual parting of the waters there is often no " range " 

 whatever. 



A short distance west of Camp 26, Mulligan's track crossed that 

 of LEICHHARDT, who followed the LYND RIVER down to the west in 

 1845. This portion of the journey was accomplished on 12th June, 

 when Mulligan made 15 miles west by south, and camped on MERO 

 CREEK, a tributary of the Lynd, about 5 miles below the present 

 ST. RONANS STATION (CAMP 27). His track of this day practically 

 coincides with the modern TELEGRAPH LINE from Mount Surprise 

 to Mount Garnet, Newellton and Herberton. 



The camp of i$th June (CAMP 28) was 6 miles lower down 

 MERO CREEK (west). In the course of the day some known LAND- 

 MARKS, including MOUNT McDEViTT, MOUNT SURPRISE and 

 MOUNT FIRTH, were sighted. 



1 The last time I saw Mr. Mulligan was in December, 1906, at the Innot Springs 

 Hotel, now a favourite health resort. Nettle Creek has yielded large quantities of 

 stream tin. 



