462 NORTHMOST AUSTRALIA 



and, leaving the Gulf waters, descended to those of the Pacific, and 

 pitched CAMP 77 on " a big creek " 6 miles from the summit. (SEE 

 MAP E.) The CAPE YORK TELEGRAPH LINE now runs from south 

 to north along the eastern side of the low watershed. 



From Camp 77 to Camp 84, the travellers were on a level country 

 forming part of the COASTAL PLAIN south of Princess Charlotte 

 Bay, and there was nothing to prevent them keeping a straight 

 course (E. 30 5'), and no inducement to diverge. 



CAMP 79 (i^th September) was on SALTWATER CREEK, already 

 " quite a river." This camp was II miles above my Camp 32 (4th 

 September, 1879, nrst tr ip)? which I believe to have been on the 

 site of Kennedy's of 6th October, 1848. The country is described 

 by Mulligan as " light, sandy and poor, teatree scrubs, stringybark 

 and grass trees, occasionally honeysuckle and nonda flats, all of 

 which must be boggy and almost impossible to travel in the wet 

 season. . . . Nowhere have I seen so many camps and fresh tracks 

 of the NATIVES as here ; they must be numerous. What a number 

 of fresh-made paths round the little lagoons and on the creek ! 

 We sprang a plant of theirs which was a regular curiosity shop, 

 containing an empty sardine box, jam-pot, hammer made of stone, 

 tomahawk ground out of a piece of inch iron, chalk, gum, beeswax, 

 nets (large and small), any quantity of well-made twine, shells, etc., 

 etc. . . . Observed that the blacks build little gunyahs, in the 

 shape of a marquee, to protect themselves from the mosquitoes ; 

 they cover them with teatree bark and rope them down with 

 straw, exactly in the shape of a haystack, having a hole in the side, 

 one foot square, to go in at." Nor were traces of the presence 

 of WHITE MEN wanting. Three miles short of Saltwater Creek, 

 a track made by horses, and only a few weeks old, was observed 

 going 20 east of north, and close to the creek, horse tracks only 

 a few days old were seen going south. I am unable to identify 

 the party to whom these horses belonged, but it is evident that 

 the movement which led to the opening of the Coen Goldfield in 

 1876 had already commenced. According to the information given 

 to me in Cooktown in 1879, a party of fifteen men left Cooktown 

 in 1876, and split up into two parties about the Coen, and the 

 party left there discovered gold about September of the same 

 year. The tracks seen by Mulligan must have been made by a 

 still earlier party. 



On i$th September, 16 miles from Camp 79, Mulligan crossed 

 " a large river running to the east of north," with " a great body 

 of water in long reaches," and named it the HANN. The river 

 was crossed below the infall of the MOREHEAD RIVER, which was 

 named in 1886 during the construction of the Cape York Telegraph 

 Line. 



Five miles further, Mulligan gave the name of the WARNER to 

 another " very large river running north." ..." This river has 



