THE CAPE YORK TELEGRAPH LINE 665 



(G) The 2-mile northern sheet of the Second Section is not among the blue 

 prints supplied to me by the Deputy Postmaster-General. The Surveyor-General's 

 tracing, however, evidently includes this sheet, and was no doubt made when the 

 original was extant, or while the first tracing was still fresh. It extends from 60 miles 

 (McDonnell Telegraph Station) to Zero at the old Patterson Telegraph Station (for 

 some years the terminus of the line). (SEE MAPS B AND A.) 



(H) Blue print, no title. Indistinct in parts. Scale y 2 ^ inch to a mile the 

 scale of Admiralty Chart, No. 2354. Cape York to mouth of Pascoe. 



This is evidently one of Bradford's original compilations from the map borrowed 

 from me. It has all my topography from Weymouth Bay to Somerset, and I recognise 

 my own handwriting, which has been traced. It contains : (l) my route and camps 

 from Camp 38 (Pascoe River, north of Canoe Creek) north to Somerset, (2) Bradford's 

 camps and route from Camp 22 (east of Moreton Telegraph Station) to Camp 49 

 (Cape York) and Somerset, (3) a line marked " probable course of line," which, from 

 McDonnell Station to the Jardine River, is about 5 miles east of the line finally adopted. 

 The latter is not on the map. 



It may be observed that Mr. Bradford's copy of my office copy 

 of the map which was intended to accompany my report written 

 in 1880, and of which it formed an essential part, is the only copy 

 of that map which has yet been discovered. Mr. Bradford's copy 

 was "discovered" in 1919, but I had already redrawn the map 

 from my original note-books, for inclusion in this work. It is 

 gratifying to note how closely the new plot agrees with the 

 original. 



The report is entitled : 



"JOURNAL OF CAPE YORK EXPEDITION UNDERTAKEN IN 1883 BY THE POST AND 

 TELEGRAPH DEPARTMENT, J. R. BRADFORD, INSPECTOR OF LINES AND MAIL ROUTE 



SERVICES, LEADER." 



Having left Cooktown on 6th June, 1883, the party camped 

 at the LAURA TELEGRAPH STATION from I2th to i6th June. On 

 the latter date, the camp was moved to " The Lagoon " on " The 

 Black Soil " (now FAIRVIEW TELEGRAPH STATION), the point where 

 the new line was to branch off from the existing Cooktown- 

 Palmerville line. (SEE MAP E.) 



The party left the Lagoon on Monday, iSth June, and, travel- 

 ling north-westward, camped on the 22nd (CAMP 5) near the site of 

 the present MUSGRAVE TELEGRAPH STATION on SALTWATER CREEK. 

 (The constructed line follows the route closely.) Having crossed, at 

 CAMP 2, what had come to be known as the " HANN RIVER," 

 another water-course was met with between Camps 3 and 4 and 

 named the " MOREHEAD RIVER." The two water-courses had 

 become one a few miles to the north, where Mulligan had crossed 

 and named the Hann River in 1 875. The Morehead is actually the 

 longer head of the river named by Mulligan and ought, de jure, to 

 bear the name of Hann, but it is now too late to make the alteration. 

 A tributary of the " Hann " branch was named HEALY CREEK, 

 while a tributary of Saltwater Creek was named MATVIEFF CREEK, 

 after the Superintendent of Telegraphs. 



II 21 



