CHAPTER XCI 



MINUTIAE OF MARINE SURVEYS, continued 

 H.M.S. "PALUMA" AND THE JANET RANGE, 1890-3 



C-SHAPED COURSE OF PASCOE RIVER, SURROUNDING JANET RANGE. THE SIR WILLIAM 

 THOMSON RANGE. TRAVERSE OF JANET RANGE WITH OBJECT OF TRACING KENNEDY'S 

 PARTY'S ROUTE TO MOUTH OF PASCOE RIVER. EMINENCES IN THE RANGE LOCATED 

 AND UNWARRANTABLY MAPPED AS " RANGES." THEY SHOULD BE " HEIGHTS " OR 

 " HILLS." 



IN the year 1880, I found that the portion of the divide to 

 which I had given the name of the Mcllwraith Range 

 had come to an end as a distinct geographical entity in 

 about 12 54' south latitude. (SEE MAPS C AND B AND 

 ADMIRALTY CHART, No. 2345.) Here we met a number of south- 

 running streams, which we traced downwards till they conjoined 

 to form an important water-course which proved, contrary to all 

 expectations, to be the upper reaches of the PASCOE RIVER, and, 

 as we had followed down its right bank until the river (then in 

 flood) had become unfordable, we had to build a canoe to ferry 

 our loads across, to avoid being forced down to the Pacific. This 

 remarkable river rises in a range of mountains close to the Pacific 

 (Lloyd Bay), runs southward, westward, northward and eastward 

 for about 75 miles till it finds an outlet into the same ocean in 

 Weymouth Bay (12 30' S.). It thus describes a figure closely 

 resembling the capital letter C. The greater part of the area 

 circumscribed by the letter is occupied by a mountain mass (com- 

 parable to that of Mount Elliott, near Townsville), to which I gave 

 the name of the JANET RANGE. 1 Geographically, it forms an entity 

 and imperatively demands a name of its own. It belongs entirely 

 to eastern or Pacific waters. The " GREAT DIVIDE " bears off to 

 the west and north-north-west between the Pascoe River, which 

 falls into the Pacific, and the Batavia River, which falls into the 

 Gulf of Carpentaria. Here it takes the form of a sandstone table- 

 land presenting an escarpment to the east and a gentle slope to 

 the west, the actual line of the parting of the waters being 

 therefore almost coincident with the top of the escarpment. To 

 this portion of the divide I gave the name of the SIR WILLIAM 



1 After my wife. 

 694 



