CHAPTER XCII 



MINUTIAE OF MARINE SURVEYS, continued 

 H.M.S. "DART" AND THE MACROSSAN RANGE, 1896-8 



MACROSSAN RANGE RECOGNISED AS SEPARATE FROM MC!LWRAITH RANGE AND NAMED 

 IN 1880. "DART" LOCATES ITS SUMMITS AND NAMES THEM "RANGES." 



IN the early days of Australian cartography, and on theoretical 

 grounds, the watershed or dividing line between the rivers 

 flowing towards the Gulf of Carpentaria and those flowing 

 towards the Pacific was known as the GREAT DIVIDING 

 RANGE, and sometimes, for the reason that it was generally close 

 to the Pacific coast, as the COAST RANGE. As exploration progressed, 

 however, it became obvious that the watershed was frequently, 

 through considerable stretches of latitude, no range at all, and 

 could only be approximately mapped on such rare opportunities 

 as were afforded by the drying up of flood-waters which lay inches 

 deep on downs or plains. Moreover, the line of watershed was 

 often found to be separated by well-defined low country from 

 distinct north- and-south ranges to which the term of " coast 

 range " could be applied with strict propriety, as their eastern 

 slopes dipped into the Pacific and even their western slopes drained 

 into that ocean. 



In 1880, the prospecting party which I was guiding found that 

 a portion of the Great Divide assumed the character of a mountain 

 mass south of the Coen Goldfield and extended northward until it 

 was lost to sight in the distance. This mountain mass I named 

 the MC!LWRAITH RANGE. After boring our way through the 

 jungles which clothed it at the heads of the Archer River, via 

 Geikie Creek, we found ourselves looking eastward across low country 

 to a range or sierra, extending from LLOYD BAY (Cape Direction) 

 TO OPPOSITE HAY ISLAND, i.e., from 12 51' to 13 39' S., which 

 I named the MACROSSAN RANGE. As such it appeared on the official 

 maps of the Lands Department as soon as my report (which defined 

 its limits) was received by the Government. 



The greater part of the western slope of the Macrossan Range 

 is drained by the river (running northward into Lloyd Bay), which 

 I named the LOCKHART, which also drains the eastern slope of a 

 portion of the Mcllwraith Range. The central part of the 

 Macrossan Range is drained on the west by the southward-running 



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