536 NORTHMOST AUSTRALIA 



was here very narrow, and choked up with DENSE SCRUB. The 

 prospectors cut a track, and we crossed to the left bank of the river. 

 We kept the left bank SE., ESE. and E. for a mile and a half 

 through scrubby country, when the valley again narrowed, and 

 we camped on a little open pocket. (CAMP 16.) 



Hume got somewhat coarser GOLD here than any yet obtained, 

 but there was very little wash, the violence of the brawling torrent 

 having carried it all away. 



Crosbie and I went out on foot to spy the nature of the country 

 up the river. For 2 miles (east-south-east) we kept the bed of the 

 river, which rose in these 2 miles at least 500 feet. It was a rushing 

 torrent over bare rocks and among boulders. At the end of the 

 2 miles the river branched, the two beds being of about equal 

 size, but the southmost having much the larger stream of water. 

 We ascended a nearly bare ridge (about 800 feet high) between the 

 two branches of the river. A quarter of a mile up the river brought 

 us abreast of one of the most imposing waterfalls in Queensland. 1 

 A sheet of white foaming water dashed down from a large tributary 

 over the left wall of the valley of the southern branch of the 

 Peach. There must be a fall of at least 500 feet in a quarter of 

 a mile. 



In a quarter of a mile more we reached the summit of the ridge, 

 and could see to the east for about 2 miles over SCRUBBY MOUNTAINS 

 with a fringe of large hoop- pines standing up against the sky. This 

 range, forming the DIVIDE OF THE PENINSULA between the heads of 

 the [South] Coen and the Peach on the one hand, and the east 

 coast on the other, I named the MC!LWRAITH RANGE, in honour 

 of the present Premier [afterwards Sir Thomas Mcllwraith, now 

 deceased. R. L. J.]. 



The banks of the river and of all its tributaries were clothed 

 with DENSE SCRUB, with palms and vines. The latter made travel- 

 ling very toilsome and even painful. 



Coming home, we crossed the northern branch of the river, and 

 came down the ridge on the north side to the camp. 



The defiles of the river, and almost all the high country crossed 

 on foot, were composed of a fine-grained grey granite with black 

 mica, and singularly devoid of reefs. It is evidently not from this 

 quarter that the gold in the lower reaches of the river has been 

 derived. My firm belief is that it must come from well back 

 on the tableland, and that only fine light gold has been able to 

 escape through the gorges into the low country. 



December 27. Leaving Camp 16, we got up on the tableland 

 by the spur on the right bank of the Peach, an ascent of about 800 

 feet, over open ridges timbered with box, bloodwood and ironwood, 

 with a few ironbarks. The gullies were scrubby, with some hoop 

 or Maryborough pines. After a sinuous course for 5 miles in a 



1 I had not then seen the falls of the Barren or Herbert. R. L. J. 



