706 NORTHMOST AUSTRALIA 



of phosphorus to the trees around the camp and exploded two 

 half-plugs of dynamite. That an ambush had been planned 

 was evident from the number of spears, dilly-bags, food, etc., 

 which he found next morning just beyond the gap, and which 

 had been hurriedly abandoned on the " supernatural " alarm. 

 The date and locality of the adventure are not recorded. 



DICKIE and two other well-known prospectors, WILLIAM 

 LAKELAND and WILLIAM BOWDEN, lay claim to the discovery of 

 WOLFRAM at the PASCOE about 1887. (SEE MAP C.) Tungstate 

 of iron (which warlike preparations and war itself have since raised 

 to a high price) was, of course, valueless at that time. Lakeland, 

 however, gave a sketch and directions to a party of prospectors, 

 G. Brown, Williamson, Evennett, Enright and Stait, who opened 

 the BOWDEN MINERAL FIELD (where MOLYBDENITE even more in 

 demand than wolfram for warlike purposes and TIN OXIDE occur 

 as well as wolfram) in I9O4- 1 



The first of Dickie's journeys in the Cape York Peninsula to 

 which I am able, from documentary evidence, to assign a date was 

 undertaken in 1887, when he was prospecting for tin north of the 

 PASCOE RIVER. (SEE MAP B.) On that occasion he found CAPTAIN 

 STEPHEN CLARK, with a party of men, " WORKING TIN 6 miles from 

 the mouth of the Pascoe River." 2 This seems to indicate a locality 

 in the neighbourhood of " CARRON HILL." Dickie himself found 

 WOLFRAM in " a range of bald hills " about 8 miles north of the 

 Pascoe, which would be about " HUXLEY HILL." In the same hills, 

 he says, but nearer to the coast, there was " payable tin from the 

 roots of the grass downwards," but it could not be profitably worked 

 for want of water. The " bald hills," Dickie says in another 

 paragraph, are " about 90 miles in a bee-line from the Wolfram 

 Camp at the head of the Pascoe River." 



The fact that a point 8 miles north of the Pascoe is only 36 miles 

 from the southern corner of the " Wolfram Camp " (now Bowden 

 Mineral Field) and not more than 40 miles frorri the most distant 

 part of the Pascoe River is an example of Dickie's vague ideas of 

 the distances travelled by him. 



"At that time" (1887), Dickie adds, "CAPTAIN THOMSON, 

 of the A.U.S.N. Company, floated a company to mine for WOLFRAM 

 in an island in Torres Straits right opposite the bald hills referred 

 to." In no sense could any point in the Carron range be "jright 

 opposite " an island in Torres Straits except in that, as Euclid 

 maintained, a straight line may be drawn from any point to any 

 other point. Dickie's observation may, however, be taken as 

 evidence that wolfram was known in some island of Torres Strait 

 as early as 1887. 



1 Mineral Resources of the Cook District, by James Dick. Port Douglas, 1910, p. 27. 



2 Letter from John Dickie to the Under-Secretary for Mines, dated Palmerville, 

 3oth January, 1909. Q.G.M.J. of isth March, 1909, p. 145. 



