550 NORTHMOST AUSTRALIA 



about 9 miles on a general NNW. course. The day was fine till 

 three o'clock, but very close and steamy. It rained from three 

 till nine. (CAMP 26.) 



'January 19. Rain in the morning, and showers and drizzle 

 till midday ; warm and close for rest of the day. 



Before leaving Camp 26, Crosbie and I ascended a hill near the 

 camp and took bearings, as follows : 



From NW. end of Macrossan Range, S. 13 W. 

 From Conical Island (" High Island ") in Lloyd Bay, 1 S. 19^ W. 

 From east end of headland (" Red Hills " in Admiralty Chart) south of Cape 

 Weymouth, S. 5 W. 



From Camp 25, on Hays Creek, N. 30 W. 



From this hill we had a clear view of the whole course of the 

 LOCKHART RIVER from its source near Hays Creek to Lloyd Bay 

 (about 25 miles), where it entered the mangroves, in which we 

 could see large inlets. CAPTAIN MORESBY tried to get up this river 

 from the sea, but failed, as will be seen by the following extract from 

 his work : 



" Wishing to clear up a doubt as to the existence or non-existence of a river reported 

 at the bottom of Lloyd Bay, we stood in and anchored near Low Island on the evening 

 of the 1 5th [January, 1872]. The chart at this point is marked ' Apparent opening 

 of a large river,' [More recent editions of the chart have ' Dense mangrove swamps 

 and salt-water creeks.' R. L. J.] and it will be seen by a glance at the map of North 

 Queensland that a river would be a rich gift of nature here, as affording an opening 

 into the country and a highway for the transit of agricultural produce. Navigating 

 Lieutenant Connor and I, in the galley, and Mr. Mourilyan, in the gig, came to an 

 anchor accordingly off the supposed entrance of the river at 1 1 p.m. At daybreak 

 we began our search for the river, and explored one salt-water creek after another, but 

 each was a failure, and led only to entanglement in the swamp, where clouds of 

 mosquitoes resented our invasion of their holds. There was NO RIVER. The drainage 

 of a hill range 6 or 7 miles inland had created a swamp of many miles extent, covered 

 by mangroves, and intersected by these salt-water creeks, and that was all." 



1 Conical Island is probably the one named " Lloyd Island " in the modern 

 Admiralty Chart, on which there is neither " Conical Island " nor " High Island." I 

 took these names from the old edition from which I compiled my " blanks," and that 

 edition is not now accessible. R. L. J. 



* Discoveries and Surveys in New Guinea and the D' Entrecasteau Islands, A Cruise 

 in Polynesia and Visits to the Pearl-shelling Stations in Torres Straits, of H.M.S. 

 " Basilisk," by Captain John Moresby, R.N. London : John Murray, 1876. 



