39 
from Moreton Bay to Port Essington. 
From the Red Kangaroo River to Limmen-bight River (latitude 
15 deg. 5 min., longitude 135 deg. 30 min.) we passed through a 
continuous low dense scrub. In four creeks intersecting our 
course we found either fresh or brackish water. The sandstone 
range which I just mentioned continued to our left. In this scrub 
twenty-nine miles long, almost all the small trees had been thrown 
down by a violent wind. They lay from south-east to north-west. 
At Port Essington I learned from Captain Macarthur that a hurri¬ 
cane had passed over Victoria in 1838, and I saw the trees which 
it had uprooted. They lay in the same direction as those of 
Limmen Bight, and I feel assured that the same hurricane has 
passed over the west coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria. 
In latitude 15 deg. 14 min. I came to the sea coast. I went in 
a north-west course to the northern extremity of the Sandstone 
Range, indicated in the map of Arrowsmith. We saw the sea, 
an island, (Maria?) and a large river coming from the westward. 
White sand plains were seen along its course. 
I had to find my way through an intricate country, intersected 
by salt-water creeks. Fresh water was generally found in creeks 
coming from sandstone ranges. Their heads were frequently 
formed by fern swamps (a species of blechnum was very frequent.) 
From latitude 15 deg. 31 min. I crossed the salt-water river by a 
rocky bar. 
Ten miles farther to the north-west I met a second branch of 
the same river, with a fine broad bed, several channels, fresh 
water in detached pools, which just had ceased running, lined with 
pandanus and drooping tea-trees. Both branches are of equal 
size, and probably came from an equal distance. Captain Wick¬ 
ham has explored the lower part of the river, and probably one of 
its branches. I do not know whether Captain Wickham has given 
a name to these rivers. I called the lower “the Limmen-bight 
River,” and its northern branch “ the Wickham,” in honour of 
the successful explorer of this coast and of the north-west coast 
of Australia. 
Between the Wickham and the Roper, (latitude 14 deg. 
50 min., longitude 135deg. 10 min.) the country is badly watered. 
Though we passed nine creeks, two of which were very cotisi- 
