574 NORTHMOST AUSTRALIA 



stone, overlaid by conglomerate with fragments of carbonised 

 wood. 



The day was sultry, with thunder- showers in the afternoon. 



February 20. We left Camp 42 in the morning, and, after 

 travelling for a mile to the west, crossed from the left to the 

 right bank of the creek which falls into the sea south of the " Remark- 

 able Red Cliff." The banks of the creek were boggy. Some 

 HOOP-PINES were observed in the scrub. 



Two miles further to the west we recrossed the creek. The 

 intervening country was sandy, with teatree and stringybark and 

 occasional patches of " garrawan "-SCRUB and HEATH. 



Shortly afterwards we got on a hard sandy ridge, and had a 

 glimpse of the coast sand-hills. 



After 2 miles more of travelling to the north-west, we crossed 

 a boggy gully, where some of the horses got stuck. Just before 

 reaching this bog we observed a place where a recent HURRICANE 

 had rooted up or broken down all the trees, CLEARING A LANE 

 about two chains in width. The course of the storm had been 

 from south to north. 



One mile and a half more to the west, mostly through low open 

 heath, we had a view of a remarkable conical sandstone-capped 

 mountain, about 6 miles off to the south-west. 



In I mile more, to the north-west, we camped at the head of 



a HEATHY AND BOGGY FLAT. (CAMP 43.) 



About an hour before we reached the camp there was a 

 thunder-storm, with ten minutes of HEAVY RAIN, which pelted 

 us like hail. 



February 21. We left Camp 43, and, after crossing the bog, 

 kept for half a mile to WSW. on the south side of a lily lagoon, 

 which proved to be the larger and outer of two anabranches of a 

 LARGE RIVER, here running to NNE. As it was impossible to cross 

 the lagoon, which was about 30 yards wide, not to speak of the 

 river, we retraced our steps and started afresh from half a mile 

 south of the camp. 



We travelled from this point for a mile to WSW. across low 

 open BOG, and for a mile and a half to ESE., and half a mile to the 

 south, along the edge of a narrow MARSH choked with pandanus 

 and PITCHER PLANT, when we crossed a fourth-magnitude creek 

 which falls into the head of the marsh. 



In one mile WNW. across low HEATHY COUNTRY, partly sandy 

 and partly BOGGY, we touched a chain of deep LAGOONS, and skirted 

 them for half a mile to the SW., when we crossed the stream con- 

 necting two of the lagoons (here running due east, and about 

 equal in volume to a creek of the fourth magnitude). 



In I mile further to WNW., over sandy country with she-oaks 

 and stringybarks, we again reached the river [MACMILLAN RIVER. 

 R. L. J.] which had turned us back in the morning. On running 



