THIRD PRELIMINARY REPORT 623 



was composed of ferruginous sandstones, giving rise to a red soil. 

 We reached an elevation of about 400 FEET above the sea-level, and 

 were evidently for the greater part of the day following the DIVIDE 

 OF THE PENINSULA. We camped at sundown on the south side of 

 a swamp. (CAMP 70.) 



It took the whole of the $oth March to cross the swamp. A strong 

 stream was running to the east. Having run it down for a mile, 

 a crossing-place was found ; but OUR DIFFICULTIES were only BEGIN- 

 NING. A network of tributary SWAMPS still lay between us and the 

 solid land. In one swamp the horses had to be left for over an 

 hour nearly up to their girths in water, while the packs were carried 

 for a quarter of a mile across stagnant water and rushes knee-deep. 

 Rain came on in the middle of this operation, but did not continue 

 long. If it had, we should have been fortunate indeed had we 

 managed to reach Newcastle Bay on a raft. Several of the HORSES 

 GOT BOGGED in crab-holes, on being led over with empty saddles. 

 But for the timely assistance of Mr. Crosbie's party, the mare lost 

 on the Richardson Range, and recovered with so much difficulty, 

 would have stuck fast for the last time. We camped on a grassy 

 ridge on the northern edge of the bog, about a mile from our last 

 camp ; both horses and men more fatigued than they would have 

 been by 20 miles of ordinary travelling. (CAMP 71.) 



March $ist. We thought ourselves at length in a position to 

 make straight for Somerset, as we were not aware of any further 

 difficulties in our way. After travelling 2 miles ENE., over sound 

 red-soil ridges, well grassed and timbered, but occasionally stony, 

 we descended into a valley, and were forced to WNW. by belts of 

 SCRUB, and had finally to cut through half a mile of dense scrub on 

 a NW. course. On emerging from the scrub we found a marshy 

 alluvial flat, with a well- beaten CATTLE TRACK. We followed the 

 latter for nearly a mile, on a horse-shoe bend from NNW. to NE. 

 and SE. till we arrived at a chain of LAGOONS, connected by a narrow 

 stream running SSE. We ran this up without finding a crossing 

 for about a mile, when, getting hemmed in between a scrub and bog, 

 we came back half a mile and camped in a grassy pocket. (CAMP 72.) 



A ford was found near the camp, and we crossed on the morning 

 of ist April and got away for 3 miles to the east, zigzagging by 

 cattle tracks, among ridges with brigalow scrub. We found two 

 NATIVE SKELETONS exposed among the limbs of fallen trees, one on 

 each side of the creek, together with evidence that a corroborree on 

 a very large scale had been held in honour of the deceased. 



In half a mile further to ENE. we passed a swamp to the right, 

 and in a mile further (NE.) the remains of an OLD STOCKYARD AND 

 HUT beside a swampy creek, called in the native language CHENIUM 

 (Pandanus). A mile and a half to the NE. brought us to a swamp 

 which we could neither cross nor get round. We tried it to right 

 and left, but were stopped both ways by a scrub on the one hand 



