PRINCESS CHARLOTTE BAY RIVERS 637 



tioned in a footnote to my diary under the date 26th August, 1879. 

 I was not then aware that there had also been officially published 

 a new issue of the 1 6- mile map of Queensland containing the same 

 data. 



After leaving the Starcke River in 1879, I had struck, in lat. 

 14 47' S. and long. 144 38' E., the head of a creek which I followed 

 down (Camps 22-24) westward to 144 20' E. Because my 

 horses almost perished for want on this portion of the journey, I 

 named the water-course " DESERT CREEK." The name of the creek 

 and the words "Jack's Route" were written on my sketch-map on 

 parallel lines, and, for some reason which has never been explained, 

 the " DESERT CREEK " was ignored and the creek became the " JACK 

 RIVER " on official maps. The creek, which must fall into the 

 " Normanby " mouth of the Princess Charlotte Bay group of rivers, 

 has not yet been surveyed. 



The most recent issue of the 4- mile map Sheet 2oA (December, 

 1907) places ANOTHER " JACK RIVER " at the southern boundary 

 of the pastoral block called "Jack's Lakes," n miles north of 

 my Camp 24, where I last saw Desert Creek. I have no reason to 

 doubt that the water-course exists, although I have no personal 

 knowledge of it, and there are no surveyed lines, unless possibly at 

 the south side of the pastoral block above referred to. It probably 

 runs into the " Normanby " mouth north of the infall of Desert 

 Creek. I must say, however, that the name of Jack River is singu- 

 larly unhappy in this instance. 



On 1 8th August, 1879, north of the Morgan River, I stood 

 at the head of a valley which, cleaving a sandstone tableland, 

 could be followed westward by the eye, and which I assumed (as 

 shown in my sketch-map) to be that of a tributary of the Normanby. 

 The valley lies to the south, while Desert Creek is on the north 

 of a sandstone tableland, and the two water-courses are roughly 

 about 15 miles apart. 



At a later stage on the same journey, my Camp 28 (3ist August, 

 1879) was on a creek or river which I had followed eastward for 

 7 miles from its junction with the Normanby River. Seven miles 

 above my Camp 28 (to ESE.), Hann's Camp 40 had been pitched 

 in 1872 on what was almost certainly the same creek. A prolonga- 

 tion of the line for a few miles eastward would join this creek with 

 the valley which I had previously seen from near the Morgan. I 

 drew a dotted line accordingly, and so it stands on the map to-day. 

 Apparently, the only surveying on the line is the connection of my 

 Camp 28 with the Normanby River by Mr. Embley in 1883, when 

 he traversed the Normanby. 



Mr. Embley explains that he was shown the position of my camp 

 by DONALD MACKENZIE, who took up Lakefield Station in 1881, 

 and who was under the impression that I had followed this creek 

 down from what was later the Starcke Goldfield. (The impression 



