548 NORTHMOST AUSTRALIA 



It rained most of the night, Macdonald was ill with fever and 

 biliousness. 



January 13. Light rain and fog till midday. I kept my tent, 

 plotting up the work. When the fog cleared, Crosbie and I ascended 

 the hill to the east of the camp to get a view and plan our next move. 

 The hill was of porphyry, or granite very poor in mica. The 

 prospectors got colours in HAYS CREEK near the camp, above a 

 waterfall. Hume and Hamil went down the valley of HAYS CREEK 

 TO THE SEA, crossing a mangrove swamp. There was a long sandy 

 beach. They saw much ironsand on the beach, but it yielded them 

 no gold. They saw three piles of DUGONG TUSKS and some pieces 

 of WRECK. Layland went back about 2 miles on our yesterday's 

 track, to a place where we had noticed some red-stained quartz reefs, 

 but got no gold. 



January 14. Rain and fog. I went up the mountain 1 which 

 bore N. 25 E. from our camp about 3 miles off, across the Hays 

 Creek valley (which is marked in the Admiralty Chart as an " open- 

 ing in the hills "). Between the creek and the mountain is a line 

 of untimbered green hills running north and south. They are 

 composed for the most part of granite, with a band of micaceous 

 slate (weathering buff) on the east side. On the top is a large 

 north-and-south QUARTZ REEF, apparently poor in iron. A parallel 

 reef on the west side, however, has some " brownstone." The 

 large reef crosses Hays Creek to the mountain which Crosbie and I 

 ascended yesterday. 



The summit of the mountain is a " knife-edge " ridge, for 

 the most part free of timber. There is a dense SCRUB on the 

 eastern side only. For some distance north of the top, however, 

 the scrub overlaps the western slope a little. From near the top 

 I could see CAPE SIDMOUTH (hilly), and the sandy spit [FRIENDLY 

 POINT. R. L. J.] to the north of the Cape ; I had also a view of 

 BEN LOMOND, and the outstanding end (with the conical knob) 

 of the left wall of the ATTACK VALLEY. I sketched the rivers falling 

 to the north in the valley dividing the Macrossan from the Mcll- 

 wraith Range, their courses being clearly defined by dark scrub. 

 The principal river, the LOCKHART (so named from my old friend, 

 Mr. Hugh Lockhart, of Edinburgh ; born 1844, died I5th 

 December, 1920), is skirted by large untimbered plains. CAPE 

 WEYMOUTH was visible occasionally when the fog lifted. 



1 This mountain is an isolated peak of the Macrossan Range, and may be known 

 as ADAM PEAK. To a distinguishable section of the Macrossan Range lying west of Cape 

 Sidmouth, the marine surveyors of H.M.S. " Dart," in 1896-8, gave the name of 

 ADAM RANGE, which I contend must be reduced to ADAM HEIGHTS, as it forms part of 

 the MACROSSAN RANGE. Indeed, the officers of the " Dart " and other marine surveyors 

 cut up the Macrossan Range into nine " Ranges," which must be reduced to " Heights " 

 or " Hills." The Macrossan Range, which, as a distinct geographical entity, I had 

 named in 1879-80 and denned as extending from 12 51' to 13 39' S. latitude, had been 

 shown on official maps since 1880, and there was no justification for restricting it to 10 

 nautical miles, and creating eight other " ranges " out of the remainder. R. L. J. 



