ANNIVERSAET ADDEESS. 9 



to the westward of the line traversed by my unfortunate friend 

 Mr. Kennedy. My ov\^n Impression, as stated many" years ago, 

 was that which was afterwards shared by others — viz., that gold 

 would be found in that direction. In my paper, read before this 

 Society, September, 1867 (Trans., vol. 1, p. 52), on the "Aurife- 

 rous Districts of Northern Queensland," I then stated that I 

 always expected another gold-field about the 144th meridian, on 

 the heads of the Mitchell waters and the Kennedy Eiver, and that 

 it was not unlikely that at the back of the east coast there are 

 patches of auriferous country as far as 13° S." 



In this opinion it will be shown I w^as correct ; for although 

 Mr. Hackett's explorations referred to in my last Anniversary 

 Address did not prove it, it was proved by the second expedition, 

 under Mr. W. Hann and Mr. Xorman Taylor in 1872, up to the 

 north of 16°, the ' course of the Kennedy River being still left 

 unexplored. 



Mr. Hackett's party (as many others have done) did not 

 clearly recognize the actual position of Kirchner's E-ange accord- 

 ing to Leichhardt's definition of its features, but passed it unob- 

 served, and so they followed down the Lynd Eiver, as, on 

 comparison of Leichhardt's and Mr. Hackett's memoranda, I 

 found to be the case, nearly to the junction of the Mitchell. 

 During this journey they suffered considerable privation, and had 

 to feed their dogs and themselves on fish, which abounded in the 

 river, and were often of great size, — but they found no gold, or, 

 at most, only minute indications of it. From a description of one 

 of the fish, I presume it to have been allied to that shot in the 

 Burdekin by Leichhardt ; or, as the account is not very clear, it 

 may have been a Ceratodus. At any rate, there is evidence of 

 abundance of life of that kind in the otherwise almost azoic region 

 through which tlie river flows. 



On their return a second exploration was made to the north-east 

 during which the party crossed to the summit of the coast range. 

 A third journey carried them to a district more northerly, in 

 which they became entangled in a mesh of water-channels, which 

 probably belonged to the heads of the Mitchell. 



