576 NORTHMOST AUSTRALIA 



high and soft, they had a very hard struggle to land ; but they 

 all did. 



When the time for crossing with my horses arrived, we manned 

 the dangerous trees in the river, and by shouts and gesticulations 

 managed to keep the horses clear of them, except " Moonlight," 

 who was caught on the same tree that did for " Monkey," but 

 Crosbie managed to push his head under it. He was swept below, 

 and with a desperate struggle gained the island. 



Considering the strength of the narrow channel between the 

 island and the left bank, and the boggy state of the bank, I made 

 Charlie lead the horses one by one along the shallow spit ; then 

 the halters were handed to a man on the bank and the real difficulty 

 with the boggy bank began. " Queensland," " Greyhound," 

 " Rose " and " Greenhide " had literally to be dug out and hauled 

 up the bank by main force. I was much indebted to Crosbie and 

 his party for the service they rendered here, without which we 

 should certainly have lost some of the horses. 



At our last camp everything which had any perspiration on it 

 was FLY-BLOWN. Our blankets and stockings were covered with 

 MAGGOTS. At Camp 45, which was in floodable country, the 

 ground was alive with CATERPILLARS. 



The night was cloudy and threatening, but no rain fell. 



This LARGE RIVER (which was named the MACMILLAN, after 

 Mr. A. C. Macmillan, late Engineer of Roads for Northern 

 Queensland), when we first saw it, was pursuing a course to the 

 north-north-west, among low HEATHY FLATS. Whether it falls 

 into Temple Bay, Margaret Bay or Shelburne Bay, I had no means 

 of judging. 1 It had, when we saw it, a volume of water about 

 equal to that of the Clyde at Glasgow, but was evidently in flood. 

 As its general course was to the north-east while we followed it 

 up, we concluded that it took its rise far to the south-west, and 

 therefore determined to cross it. When, however, we reached 

 higher ground on the following day, we found that the river really 

 took its rise far to the north-west, and followed closely the base 

 of the escarpment of the SIR WILLIAM THOMSON RANGE to within 

 a few miles of where we crossed it. Had we kept the left bank 

 for a few miles further than we did we could have rounded the elbow 

 of the river and got away easily to north-north-west. 



[I conjecture, from Jackey-Jackey's tale, that he, Kennedy, 

 Costigan, Dunn and Luff must have crossed the Macmillan 

 River where we did, and thereafter must have kept about 8 miles 

 to the east of our course till they came to the west coast of 

 Shelburne Bay. R. L. J.] 



February 24. On leaving Camp 45, thankful to escape being 

 flooded out (which must have happened had any large quantity of 



1 According to the 4-Mile Map of the Lands Department (1908), it falls into Margaret 

 Bay. R. L. J. 



