484 NORTHMOST AUSTRALIA 



the scrub-matted water-courses to the north of Cooktown. The 

 obvious explanation was the poverty of the sandy soil. 



Camped on the left bank of the creek. (CAMP 21 : Moreton 

 Bay ash, broad arrow, J. 21). 



In the course of the day we passed two NATIVE CAMPS in the 

 open country. One had evidently been abandoned only a few 

 days before ; it was merely a ring of boughs for a breakwind and 

 the usual cooking-holes. The other was of more substantial 

 bark " gunyahs," supported on pegs. 



August 22. We steered magnetic west on leaving Camp 21, 

 for the first mile and a half over flats with sandy soil, and for an 

 equal distance across teatree ridges (spurs of the hills forming the 

 left wall of the valley of the creek at Camp 21). In 3 miles from 

 the camp we were on the saddle of a low gap in the sandstone wall. 

 The gap showed slates and porphyries strewn with small quartz 

 fragments. Three miles further west, through similar country, 

 with sandstone cliffs capping the mountains to the north and south, 

 brought us to the left bank of a running creek flowing south, with 

 several sandy ridges in its bed ; it must be a tributary of the creek 

 that we left in the morning. 



On the same course we travelled for 4 miles further through 

 a poor, desert country, the bottom being recemented granite and 

 sandstone debris., giving rise to a soil only capable of supporting 

 stunted brushwood and poor, wiry grass. When sunset brought 

 with it the necessity for camping, we managed, after much search, 

 to find two muddy water-holes in a marshy bottom, and pitched 

 our camp beside them. (CAMP 22 : stringybark, broad arrow, 



j. ") 



Another horse had been found early in the day to be on the 

 point of knocking up, and I reluctantly made up my mind to stay 

 two days at Camp 22 before attempting to cross the ranges ahead 

 of us. It was a pity that the grass and water were not of better 

 quality than they were at our enforced halting-place. 



The following morning (zyd August), Macdonald and I 

 walked into the next valley by a gap in the mountains, below the 

 level of the base of the sandstone. The ridge we crossed was OH 

 slate, as was also the valley to the west. We carried prospecting 

 tools, but as we found no water, they were of no use to us. On 

 my way back to the camp I ascended the sandstone range to the 

 north and had a long look ahead. After 6 or 8 miles of mountains 

 the country to the west appeared to be low and gently undulating,, 

 and I congratulated myself that our difficulties in crossing th4 

 range were nearly over. I could see the sandstone ranges extending 

 a long way to the north, to a point which cannot be far from Cap^ 

 Melville. Looking back on the line of our last march, the blacks 

 were seen burning the bush about 3 miles to the east of our camp. 



In the afternoon we prospected for some time (without success) 



