652 NORTHMQST AUSTRALIA 



to make York Downs his headquarters, and owing to this circum- 

 stance, he came to acquire a familiarity with the neighbourhood 

 which led to its being charted with unusual minuteness. The 

 construction of the Telegraph line, the delimitation of Police 

 and Aboriginal Reserves (the latter in connection with the Mapoon 

 Mission, established in 1893) and subsequent co-operation with 

 the missionaries in exploratory work necessitated such an amount 

 of travelling, sketching and surveying on Mr. Embley's part that 

 he became the supreme authority on the geography of the LOWER 

 BATAVIA. 



North of the Batavia River and west of the Cape York Telegraph 

 line, an important tributary which had been named NIMROD CREEK 

 by the Jardine Brothers in 1865 was located in 1885-6 by Mr. 

 Embley in the course of running lines in connection with the 

 Police Reserve. 



Above the " point 6 miles from Moreton Telegraph Station," 

 a reach of the river 40 miles in length still remains unsurveyed, 

 but its general course, to north-north-west, is undoubted. Above 

 this reach, Mr. Embley, in the course of surveys of " Big River " 

 and " Pine Tree " pastoral holdings, and a wheel-and-compass 

 survey of the upper part of the river itself, charted the final 40 

 miles of the Batavia River south-eastward and eastward to its head 

 on the DIVIDE OF THE PENINSULA, in the MC!LWRAITH RANGE. 

 He also charted SEFTON CREEK, a tributary which heads in the 

 divide and runs westward a few miles north of the Batavia, which 

 it joins after a course of about 20 miles. In this Sef ton-Bat a via 

 region, Mr. Embley's surveys are of the utmost service in locating 

 the lines traversed by me in 1880. Here, as well as on the head- 

 waters of the Archer River, he was assisted in the field by WILLIAM 

 LAKELAND, the well-known prospector. 



WATSON RIVER 



The Archer and Batavia Rivers rise close together in the 

 Mcllwraith Range, but as they fall to the west in their progress 

 to the Gulf of Carpentaria, they diverge widely enough to leave 

 room between them for large areas drained by rivers which fall 

 independently into the Gulf. (SEE MAPS C AND D.) Coming 

 from south to north, the first of these rivers is the WATSON. One 

 of its principal heads is named LAGOON CREEK, on which is the 

 MERLUNA DOWNS STATION (lat. 13 3' S., long. 142 30' E. 17 

 miles west of the Telegraph line), originally taken up by Watson 

 Brothers in 1888, and now a State-owned cattle run. From 

 Merluna Downs the Watson River falls on a western course for 

 26 miles to the boundary of the Aboriginal Reserve (which 

 extends thence to the coast) and on a south-western course for 



