592 NORTHMOST AUSTRALIA 



with its thickest part buried in the flesh. It made, as may be 

 imagined, an ugly wound which partially disabled me for the rest 

 of the journey. 



The SPEARS which entered my tent PASSED directly OVER LOVE'S 

 STRETCHER, and must have killed him had he been asleep, as the 

 blacks had been cunning enough to stand in the water-hole, at a level 

 which enabled them to rake the floors of the tents with their spears. 

 Charlie had saved himself, as has already been related. MAC- 

 DONALD'S tent had THREE SPEARS in it, besides one which had fallen 

 short outside. His personal safety was owing to the fact that 

 he slept on the lee-side of a pile of pack-saddles and rations. An 

 idea of the FORCE with which the spears may be propelled by 

 WIMMERAS may be gathered from the fact that a spear was found 

 to have PENETRATED A BAG OF RICE, and entered the tin covering of 

 an oil- bottle, which was broken by the shock. 



March 10. It would have been useless to have attempted to 

 follow the blacks, who could easily have escaped to the islands in 

 their canoes. The condition of our horses and rations alike made 

 it imperative that we should push on without the loss of a day, and 

 if possible rejoin the prospectors. 



Before leaving the scene of the attack, we broke up and BURNED 

 the collection of SPEARS which had been thus unexpectedly forced 

 on us. Quite an armful was picked up round the tents. 



Three miles from CAMISADE CREEK we had to wait for three 

 hours at the mouth of a third- magnitude creek for the fall of the 

 tide. The place bore W. 15 S. from HALFWAY ISLAND. 



In 2 miles further we came on a camp of the PROSPECTORS with 

 their tracks leading northward from it. In 3 miles more we 

 found them on FALSE ORFORD NESS, and camped beside them. 

 (CAMP 58.) 



To-day's stage was very easy travelling on a narrow strip of 

 moderately hard sand. Above that was a raised beach 10 or 

 12 feet high which in places extended inland for nearly a quarter 

 of a mile. The RAISED BEACH was covered more or less with hills 

 of BLOWN SAND. North of the creek where we waited for the tide 

 to fall, the sand-hills abutted on hills of sandstone (bare or heath- 

 covered) three or four hundred feet in height. 



We encountered no rain on our journey, but there had been a 

 heavy shower at False Orford Ness in the morning. There was 

 heavy rain after dark. The " Normanby " steamer, from Hong- 

 kong, was seen passing south about eight o'clock. 1 



The PROSPECTORS had had a very trying time since we parted. 

 Their horses, which were allowed to feed at Camp 53, were all more 



1 I could not mistake her. She had brought my wife and myself from Singapore 

 in 1877 when we first came to Queensland. Cholera having broken out on board, the 

 " Normanby " went on to Sydney in quarantine. We rejoined her at Brisbane on our 

 way to Townsville. She struck an uncharted reef, and was beached on No. 2 Percy 

 Island. R. L. J. 



