Page:Northmost Australia volume 1.djvu/255

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224
NORTHMOST AUSTRALIA


water to bake with, the party got over a gap and into a creek running to the north. They must have threaded their way among the peaks afterwards named SOUTH PAP, NORTH PAP, MOUNT DOBSON and MOUNT NELSON probably west of the " Paps " and east of the " Mounts." They ran the creek down, and in the even- ing found water in its bed and camped. (SEE MAP B.)

On 10th November, the expedition moved about three miles northward down the valley of the creek and camped near a spot where a great number of pandanus trees were growing. On the nth, a further progress of 2 or 3 miles was made to the north; the creek was crossed where it turned eastward and showed the influence of the tide ; and the party camped. This day the LAST SHEEP presumably the only one that had reached the camp was KILLED.

The camp was visited by several NATIVES, who conducted themselves peaceably, having been gratified by presents of a tin plate and fish-hooks and impressed by the shooting of fourteen or fifteen hawks. One of the dogs killed a puppy belonging to the natives, and the puppy was eaten by Dunn, Luff, Costigan and Goddard.

On Sunday, 12th November, there were " prayers at eleven." Carron and Jackey-Jackey walked to the beach in the hope of finding a supply of salt, but were disappointed.

On i^th November, the camp was shifted to a more suitable position on the right or southern bank of the creek, at the foot of a high bare hill. The hill was evidently what appears in the Admiralty Chart of 1897 as BARRETT HILL, the camp being at the northern end of the hill. Carron gives its latitude as 12 35' S., but it is really 12 31'.

Kennedy was constitutionally averse to admitting his defeat and hard to convince ; but he had at last been satisfied by the unanswerable logic of facts that it was impossible to complete the journey as he had originally planned. He now made preparations for a DASH TO CAPE YORK, from which he hoped to bring speedy relief to the party left in charge of CARRON at the depot on the PASCOE RIVER, near its outfall into Weymouth Bay.

A short distance below the depot, the creek which had been followed down from 9th November becomes a tidal inlet and joins the PASCOE RIVER. The river itself is little more than a mile north of the camp of the nth. North of the river, a range of mountains extends north-westward, by Fair Cape to Temple Bay. To this I gave the name of the CARRON RANGE (see my Diary of nth February, 1880). According to the Admiralty Chart of 1897, individual peaks of the range are now named WALL HILL, HUXLEY HILL, STANLEY HILL, KENNEDY HILL (the highest point, 1,440 feet) and CARRON HILL (1,380 feet). 1 South of the river mouth lies

1 Names given by the officers of the surveying ships "Palutna" and "Dart," 1890-8. See the chapters on Minutiae of Marine Surveys.