538 NORTHMOST AUSTRALIA 



chances of finding that one had been cutting to the river or only to 

 some insignificant gully. 



Hume and Layland went to the river in the afternoon and 

 prospected ; they got only fine " colours " of GOLD. They 

 reported that where they were, the rocks in the bed of the river were 

 washed quite clean, and that the current was so rapid that " quick- 

 silver couldn't stay." 



December 30. At 8 o'clock last night heavy rain began to fall, 

 and it continued till 8 this morning. THE WET SEASON HAD SET IN. 



We packed up to continue our course up the river, if practicable. 

 The rain ceased as we started and held off for the greater part of 

 the day, although the sky was dull and threatening. We kept beating 

 about to east and south, among openings in the SCRUB, or cutting 

 our way through it, and succeeded in reaching the base of a pine- 

 crested range round whose eastern end the river appeared to come. 

 We found that we were here within the drainage area of the " Falls 

 branch " of the Peach, on one of its tributaries running about a 

 "sluice-head of water." We then made for the main river and struck 

 it at a waterfall, which discharged itself into a huge cauldron, 

 whose edges were alive with FRESH-WATER CRABS. There appeared 

 to be open country on the right bank, but we were unable to cross, 

 the bottom being smooth and bare and the banks very steep. We 

 returned to where we had crossed the river before, and recrossed it, 

 finding that in all our wanderings we had only succeeded in making 

 half a mile up the river. We tried to follow the open crests of the 

 hills forming the right wall of the valley, but in a mile were baffled 

 by the density of the SCRUB and gave up the attempt. 



My hope was that payable gold might be found in the upper 

 reaches of the river on the tableland, near the supposed source 

 of the GOLD, and where the torrent was not impetuous enough to 

 sweep away all its own detritus. We had not yet reached such a 

 place, if it existed. If there be such a place, it must be beyond 

 the pine-crested range where we stopped short to-day. I intended, 

 on the return journey, to make another attempt by cutting paths 

 for the horses in advance from camp to camp, as well as to try the 

 unexplored country on the King and Lukin [Holroyd] Rivers to 

 the west of our route. 



Most of the country traversed to-day and yesterday was of 

 fine-grained granite, with some quartz not very much, and not 

 much charged with metallic ores. But there was quartz among 

 the gravel of the river, whereas there was none in, and but little 

 below, the gorge. 



On our return to Camp 17 (about 3 p.m.), we learned that 

 HAMIL AND LOVE had had a visit of the NATIVES in force about 

 two hours before. Love was baking at the door of his tent, when 

 he saw twenty or thirty blacks, about loo yards off, coming up the 

 green slope towards the tents, talking and gesticulating eagerly, 



