490 NORTHMOST AUSTRALIA 



volume to the Endeavour River at Webb's Crossing. It had a 

 sandy bed, with the teatrees and Moreton Bay ash characteristic 

 in this latitude of large water-courses in poor country. The banks 

 of the creek were choked with brushwood and very poorly grassed 

 a marked contrast to the fertile banks of the Endeavour. We 

 crossed to the left bank, and found that another river of equal 

 volume l was flowing in the same direction within a quarter of a 

 mile. We camped between the two (CAMP 28). I learn from 

 Hann's journal that he made the very same mistake that we did 

 in following this creek up under the impression that it was the Nor- 

 manby. The keen eyes of the black boy saw the place where 

 we left the river, but I was not informed of this till we had camped.' 



September I. We left Camp 28 early in the morning, and 

 having crossed the southmost creek [" JACK RIVER "] struck due 

 south. In half a mile we came to a long lagoon stretching east and 

 west, and after heading it (half a mile east) continued on our 

 southward course. In 4 miles, across rather barren country, with 

 bloodwood and ironbark timber, we passed by the east end of 

 another large lagoon. In a quarter of a mile more a third-magni- 

 tude creek was crossed, running west, and in half a mile more we 

 struck the COEN TRACK. For the last 3 or 4 miles of our journey 

 we met with abundant evidence of the recent passage of a large 

 number of NATIVES. 



After a hurried consultation with Macdonald and Grainer 

 regarding the condition of the horses and the quantity of our rations 

 and ammunition, it was agreed that the horses might carry us 

 through, but that we should have to go on a short allowance of the 

 necessaries of life, trusting to eke out the quantity with game. 

 The task we set before ourselves was an arduous one, but one and 

 all cheerfully accepted the risks and privations rather than go back 

 baffled. 



The track which we followed from this point to the Coen 

 diggings turned out to be in places very indistinct. It was difficult 

 to believe that not much more than a twelvemonth ago two 

 thousand horses had beaten it. A line of trees was marked, but 

 it was sometimes " a far cry " from one blaze to the next. 



In 2 miles NNW., we passed a large lagoon on the left. Five 

 GINS were surprised here engaged in digging lily-roots on the 

 edge of the lagoon. They ran away at first, one gin leaving her 

 child behind, but they shortly approached and jabbered volubly. 

 The women had straight hair. One of them had a child about 

 three days old, and it was interesting to note that it was marked with 

 the boiled-lobster tint common among white children of the same 



1 This " other river " is the one which the Surveyor-General now proposes to call 

 the Jack River. R. L. J. 



2 I was wrong. Hann did not make this mistake. He camped (his Camp 40) on 

 this creek on i5th September, 1872. The creek was named the Jack River in 1884 by 

 J. T. Embley. It rises in the Starcke Goldfield, about 36 miles east of my Camp 28. 

 Alluvial gold has been worked at its head. R. L. J. 



