568 NORTHMOST AUSTRALIA 



structed of bark on forks. One of them had two sheets of COPPER 

 SHEATHING on its roof. 



A mile and a half further, with low SANDHILLS to the left, we 

 reached a bare headland of horizontal sandstone, resting on 

 serpentine, about 100 feet in height. On rounding the headland 

 we found the WRECK of a large copper-sheathed brig, with its 

 cargo of cedar logs strewn along the beach. Most of the logs were 

 branded " L " and some " DH." As the crew of the lightship 

 had never heard of the wreck, we imagined that it must have taken 

 place before the lightship was anchored in its present position, 

 which commands a view of the whole bay. On our return to 

 Cooktown we reported the wreck, and MR. B. FAHEY visited it, 

 and identified the ship as the " KATE CONNOLLY," which left 

 Cairns for Sydney in March, 1878, and was never heard of again. 

 The MEMORABLE STORM of the 8th of that month, when CAIRNS 

 was PARTLY DESTROYED, sufficiently accounted for the disappearance 

 of the vessel, but its fate had remained a mystery till we accidentally 

 discovered the wreck. The Captain, it is believed, intended to 

 go outside the Barrier Reef by the Trinity Opening. The ship 

 was probably drifted in dark weather (otherwise it must have been 

 seen from the lightship) to its last resting-place. The crew (seven 

 or eight in number) in all probability perished at sea. Had they 

 landed in Temple Bay they must have met a horrible fate at the 

 hands of the blacks. We saw no trace of the habitations of white 

 men. [A copy of Mr. Fancy's Diary is in my possession. R. L. J.] 

 Half a mile beyond the wreck we reached BOLT HEAD, a bare 

 promontory which presents a cliff of about a hundred feet in height 

 to the sea for half a mile. At the top of the cliffs were about 

 30 feet of horizontal reddish sandstone resting unconformably on 

 a blue LIMESTONE with a quasi-schistose structure. The limestone 

 was at least 100 feet in thickness, and had a dip to the east at 45 

 degrees. 1 



For the next mile, through well-grassed country, partly scrubby, 



1 Bolt Head was sighted and named by Captain Cook on i8th August, 1770. He 

 named Temple Bay and Cape Grenville on the day following. It is more than likely, 

 however, that what now appears on the Admiralty Chart as " Bolt Head " (in Temple 

 Bay, 12 15' S.) is not the promontory to which he gave the name. The " high point 

 that we called Bolt Head, from which the land bears more westerly" appears to be 

 fairly descriptive of what is now charted as " Mosquito Point," 12 20' S. After leaving 

 " Cooktown," in his repaired ship, the " Endeavour," Captain Cook attempted the 

 passage inside the Barrier Reef, landing at Point Lookout, but in three days was con- 

 vinced that safety lay in getting outside of the " shoals." He cleared the reef to the 

 north of the Lizard Island on i3th August. On the ifth he again steered west, that 

 he " might be sure not to over-shoot the passage, if a passage there was, between thi 

 land and New Guinea." The following day he came on the Barrier Reef again, and, 

 as if by miracle, was drifted through what he called " Providential Opening " into the 

 smooth water between the Reef and the Mainland. The passage between New Guinea 

 and Cook's " New South Wales " (Australia) had already been made by Torres, the 

 Commander of one of the ships of Quiros' Spanish expedition in September, 1606, but 

 this fact was either not known to Cook, or was doubted by him. It appears to have 

 been equally unknown to, or ignored by, the authorities of the Dutch East India Com- 

 pany, as shown by their instructions to leaders of explorations in and after 1623. 

 R. L. J. 



