SECOND PRELIMINARY REPORT 595 



into the north end of Temple Bay, was afterwards found to rise to 

 the north-west, about the latitude of Young Island. It received 

 the name of the MACMILLAN. [It falls, according to modern maps, 

 into Margaret Bay, west of Cape Grenville. R. L. J.] 



After an arduous day's travelling, mainly in a north-westerly 

 direction, through BOGGY COUNTRY, DENSE BRUSHWOOD AND SCRUB, 

 WITHOUT A BLADE OF GRASS, we camped among the spurs of the range 

 easy red-soil ridges with open timber. We had the satisfaction 

 of being once more high and dry in a place where the floods could 

 not harm us and where the horses would find plenty to eat. HEAVY 

 RAIN began before we had completed our camp [CAMP 46], and the 

 next day the 2$th brought such torrents that we were convinced 

 that had the crossing of the Macmillan River been postponed for 

 twenty-four hours men and horses must alike have been swept 

 away. 



For the greater part of the two following days we kept, on a 

 course of NNW., the edge of a SANDSTONE TABLELAND, which 

 dropped off suddenly on our right hand. This portion of the range 

 afforded at least better travelling an open-timbered, grassy 

 land than any we had enjoyed north of the latitude of No. VIII 

 Island of the Claremont group. But our satisfaction on this 

 ground was more than outweighed by our chagrin in finding that 

 the range was composed solely of the " DESERT SANDSTONE " with 

 which we had already become too familiar in the Peninsula. 



This sandstone has an almost imperceptible dip to the west, 

 and the escarpments formed by the weathering of the harder beds 

 give rise to the so-called " range " WHICH DIVIDES THE EASTERN 

 AND WESTERN WATERS of the greater part of the Peninsula. A few 

 miles west of our course lay the crowning escarpment of the range ; 

 a lower shelf of the sandstone stretched between us and the 

 SAND-HILLS fringing SHELBURNE BAY; its only vegetation a dreary 

 HEATH, relieved at intervals by coarse grass on some isolated frag- 

 ments of the higher shelf on which we were travelling. 



On the afternoon of the 2jth February we left the tableland 

 and struck due north into the HEATHY COUNTRY, when we found a 

 large creek running north-east towards Shelburne Bay. A FOOT- 

 BRIDGE was improvised by felling an overhanging teatree and ekeing 

 it out with saplings and a rope. Over this our packs and saddles 

 were carried on the heads of the party. The horses were got across 

 at a place a quarter of a mile higher, where they could just keep 

 their feet and no more. We camped on the left bank. [CAMP 48.] 

 The RAIN which fell during the subsequent part of the day and 

 following night made us thankful that we had got over in 

 time. 



On the 2%th we travelled nearly due north for ii-fc miles, over 

 country partly heathy and stony and partly open-timbered (chiefly 

 stringybark), with red sandy soil. This brought us [at CAMP 49] 



