McILWRAITH AND MACROSSAN RANGES 719 



they found OLD WORKINGS. In the last of these places their tests 

 led them to conclude that the ground was poor, but a " good 

 fossicker might make 3 dwt. a day for a few months." 



Starting from Camp 37 on yd August, Dick and Sheffield 

 followed a PATH which led them down the valley of DODD CREEK 

 to the coast, where they found a long sandy beach and a LARGE 

 CAMP, with yards and huts, evidently a depot for sandalwood. 

 A TRACK led northward from the depot. They returned to 

 Camp 37 after dark. 



On \th August, Dick and Sheffield rode out to see if the track 

 from the sandalwood depot on the coast led to Hays Creek. The 

 " good blazed track," however, led them to the NW. until they 

 were satisfied that they were on western waters, among the heads 

 of Falloch, Geikie or Hull Creek, as they imagined, but more 

 probably on the head-waters of the Batavia. In many places, 

 OLD YARDS and CAMPS were observed, showing that this part of 

 the range was already well known to the sandalwood men. After 

 a long day's ride, the travellers returned to Camp 37 in the dark. 



On 5 /A August, Dick and Sheffield left the " Green Hills " 

 camp (37) in search of Hays Creek. In a valley between the Lock- 

 hart River and the Macrossan Range they struck a creek which 

 was new to them, as, after coming from the south, parallel with 

 the Lockhart (which continues to run north till it falls into Lloyd 

 Bay), it turns east and BREACHES THE MACROSSAN RANGE. They 

 concluded that the creek was Hays Creek. Shortly afterwards 

 they struck a TRACK running southward up the valley evidently 

 the pack-track leading from Dodd and Preston's camp to the 

 landing visited on 3rd August. In about 6 miles to the south, 

 the track brought them to DODD AND PRESTON'S CAMP at their 

 GOLDEN GATE REEF. The diary states that " Dodd and Preston's 

 mine is situated on the divide of Hays and Nisbet waters." As, 

 however, Dick took Dodd for Hays Creek, the sentence should 

 read " on the divide of Dodd and Hays Creeks." The night was 

 spent at the mining camp, and the reef was visited. There were 

 at the time only three men at work on the mine, but two visitors 

 were also met ; one was Anderson, the storekeeper from Ebagoolah, 

 and in the other Dick recognised a shipwrecked mariner, 

 named Coleman, whom he had seen three years before at Thursday 

 Island. 



On 6th August, Dick and Sheffield returned to Camp 37, by 

 the spur dividing Dodd Creek and the head of the Lockhart, 

 guided by a black boy in the employ of Anderson and Coleman. 

 The spur showed the outcrops of numerous QUARTZ REEFS. 



Some interesting particulars of the opening of the GOLDEN 

 GATE REEF are given by Dick in his Geographical Society paper 

 and his diary. It appears that Dodd and Preston came on foot 

 from the Rocky Goldfield, carrying their tools and provisions on 



