FROM TEMPLE BAY TO HEAD OF JARDINE 583 



north-east for a mile and a half, but found no end to it. It turned 

 out to be a belt fringing a gully running north-west. I got a very- 

 heavy shower on my way back. Charlie, Macdonald and I sought 

 for " Olive " for two hours more, but were still unsuccessful. 

 There were innumerable pockets in the scrub, in any one of 

 which she might be concealed. 



When CROSBIE'S HORSES were all found, he PUSHED ON in the hope 

 of finding a grassy camp, as the horses could not live at the present 

 place. 



At three o'clock we packed up and FOLLOWED ON CROSBIE'S 

 TRACKS, resolved, if we found a fair camp, to spend the next day 

 in searching for " Olive." We all felt that " Olive," though a 

 weedy little mare, was indispensable to us, as she always followed 

 the leader like a dog, and formed an invaluable head for the train 

 of pack-horses. 



Following Crosbie's tracks, we kept to the north-west for 

 half a mile on the edge of the scrub ; then for a mile and a half, 

 the first quarter of a mile through a path cut [by Crosbie's party] 

 in a DENSE SCRUB. Part of the track coincided with a TRACK CUT 

 one or two seasons ago BY THE NATIVES. The rest of the distance 

 was half forest, half scrub, with, however, NO GRASS. Here we 

 crossed to the right bank of a fourth- magnitude creek (flooded) 

 running to the NW., the head, I believe, of the river which proved 

 the crowning difficulty of the Messrs. Jardine's eventful journey 

 in 1865. The BROTHERS JARDINE believed that THE RIVER (to which 

 afterwards THEIR OWN NAME WAS GIVEN) was the ESCAPE RIVER of 

 Captain King, and followed it down to the north and west for 

 many days in the daily expectation of rounding its angle and 

 getting away to the north, till their doubts were set at rest by its 

 falling into the Gulf. 



In a quarter of a mile to the north, through SCRUB, we reached 

 a GULLY which the prospectors had had to BRIDGE over. Here 

 we overtook them, their progress through such country having 

 been necessarily very slow. 



In half a mile more to the NNW., through DENSE SCRUB, in 

 which a lane had to be cut, we found ourselves in a sort of pocket, 

 in which we camped just as it was becoming dark. Crosbie and I 

 went out about a mile to the north through thick scrub, but found 

 no end to it in that direction. Crosbie and Layland then tried 

 about a mile to WNW., but found only another somewhat open 

 pocket, no better than that in which we camped. (CAMP 53.) 



Water for the billy had to be brought from the gully with 

 the bridge. As the GRASS was very limited in quantity and poor in 

 quality, and as some of the horses exhibited symptoms which led 

 us to suspect the presence of a POISONOUS HERB among the grass 

 at last camp, and as there was no water at the camp, I judged that 

 there was no chance of the horses being found in the morning, and 



