FIRST PRELIMINARY REPORT 571 



I led the party to strike the Peach so far west for the purpose 

 of seeing a range (the Geikie Range) which had been dimly des- 

 cried on the previous trip and which, I thought, might possibly 

 be auriferous country. It turned out, however, to be horizontally 

 bedded " DESERT SANDSTONE," covering over all the possibly 

 auriferous country in that locality. 



This " DESERT SANDSTONE " now appears to occupy a much 

 greater area in the Peninsula than has been hitherto suspected. 

 Covering all the surface west of the I43rd meridian FROM THE 

 PEACH RIVER northward TO the south corner of TEMPLE BAY with 

 a very gentle dip to the west, it reduces the primary and possibly 

 auriferous country to a very narrow belt along the east coast. 1 



The prospectors spent ten days on the " upper reaches of the 

 PEACH RIVER," so far as these were accessible for scrub and precipi- 

 tous rocks. To our great disappointment, we found the stream so 

 confined with rocky gorges that scarcely any washdirt was to be 

 found, the force of the current having washed the rocky bed of the 

 river quite bare. Where any wash was found it generally yielded 

 " colours " [of GOLD]. 



Having crossed the Coast Range, from the head of the Peach 

 River to the eastern waters, we obtained " colours " in the gullies 

 opposite No. VIII ISLAND. Since then we have been travelling 

 northward across the heads of tributaries of the Peach and down 

 the PASCOE RIVER (which rises near the south end of Lloyd Bay, 

 goes north-westward to the I43rd meridian and north-eastward into 

 Weymouth Bay). We have not obtained even " colours," however, 

 from No. VIII Island to Fair Cape, although country of the same 

 character (granite in the mass of the range, with occasional gneiss, 

 mica-schist and quartzite on its edges) has been traversed. 



The RAINS have made travelling since Christmas very difficult 

 and disagreeable. We had to CAMP FOR A WEEK opposite No. VIII 

 ISLAND, FOR ANOTHER WEEK in the latitude of CAPE DIRECTION, 

 and finally, to WAIT AT THE PASCOE RIVER till Mr. Crosbie's party 

 built a BOAT to carry the packs across. 



The NATIVES proved very HOSTILE from the heads of the Peach 

 to a camp near Cape Sidmouth (about ten days). [SEE MAP B.] 

 They ATTACKED MR. CROSBIE'S PARTY ONCE AND MINE TWICE 

 while we were travelling in the rain. They threw SPEARS FROM 

 AMBUSCADES on the edges of the scrubs, on one occasion WOUNDING 

 FATALLY THE HORSE i WAS RIDING, and on another INFLICTING a severe 

 flesh WOUND ON JAMES LOVE'S HORSE. They were, however, so 

 far misled afterwards as to leave their cover and brave us in the 

 open country, when they learned to respect firearms. We have 



1 In " A Short Account of Travel from Thursday Island along the Line to the Main 

 Telegraph Station," etc., in the Northern Herald of 2ist January, 1916, Mr. James Dick 

 refers to " the furthest north gold discovery on the mainland," viz., a reef, yielding 

 9 dwt. per ton, worked by Jardine and Crisp, " 2 miles from Temple Bay." The 

 exact locality is not given, but it is probably in the Carron Range. R. L. J. 



