n,? t or -M.? Cc-^^i^vX 
BELLENDEN-KEE, RANGE (WOOROONOORAN), 
NORTH QUEENSLAND. 
(REPORT BY A. MESTON ON THE GOVERNMENT SCIENTIFIC EXPEDITION TO THE) 

TO THE HON. 1. HUME BLACK, MINISTER EOR LANDS, QUEENSLAND. 
Deae Sir, — The following is a report of the scientific expedition 
which I had the honour of conducting to the Belleiiden-Ker Bange 
in North Queensland. It includes a brief article on the blacks of the 
Bellenden-Ker district, with specimen words from five native dialects, 
an account of the freshwater lakes on the tablelands of the Upper 
Barron, and a short description of the timbers in the country 
traversed by the expedition. 
On the 4th of .Tune Mr. F. M. Bailey, Colonial Botanist, and 
myself left Brisbane for Cairns, where we arrived on the 9th, and 
were joined by Mr. Kendall Broadbent, Zoological Collector for the 
Museum. In three days all preliminary preparations were com- 
pleted, and the whole outfit ready for starting. 
Special care was taken to provide for all probable contingencies. 
The foods selected were those best adapted to the climate and the 
work to be done, and sickness and accidents were anticipated by 
proper remedies and appliances. The outfit included a supply of 
sandshoes for the whole party, including the kanakas, whose bare feet 
would never have endured continuous travel through thorny scrubs 
and over weather-worn granite rocks. Throughout the whole period 
of the expedition all expenditure was economised to the extreme limit 
compatible with the comfort of the party, there being no waste and 
no extravagance, and no article purchased beyond those imperatively 
required. Three guns and a rifle were supplied for the use of the party 
by myself, free of cost to the Government. The only instruments 
purchased were a compensating aneroid and a couple of thermometers. 
On Friday, 14th Jane, the expedition started from Cairns. 
Besides Mr. Bailey, Mr. Broadbent, and myself, there was my own 
son Harold, a boy 14 years of age, who gave very useful service 
as a collector and assistant, a young man named Walter Beman, 
sent to me for colonial experience, and four strong kanakas, one of 
whom was very kindly sent specially for the trip by Messrs. Swallow 
and Derham. 
On the night of the 15th w^e camped on Behana Creek, on the 
edge of the Mulgrave Plains, about three miles from the Walsh 
Pyrann'd. The two plains on tl)e Mulgrave are divided by Behana 
Creek, a stream fringed on each side by a belt of scrub. This creek 
the blacks call " Tringilburra," a much more euphonious and 
appropriate name than the one it bearp. During this expedition I 
have made special efforts to obtain the native names for creeks, 
mountains, rivers, and other conspicuous geographical features, and 
respectfully suggest their adoption, not only for unnamed places, but 
to supersede many of the utterly meaningless names already conferred 
