Page:Northmost Australia volume 1.djvu/308

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GREGORY
273


the BROUGHTON RIVER, south-east of Charters Towers, and camped at the mouth of GLADSTONE CREEK.

He followed the Burdekin to the SE., to its junction with the SUTTOR RIVER, which comes from the south. He then followed up the Suttor to the south as far as lat. 21 22' 43", where he placed his camp of yd November.

Six miles south of this camp, the stream now known as the Suttor, branches off to the east. Gregory, however, followed southward on what is undoubtedly the more important water- course, the BELYANDO, which he believed to be the Suttor. Ten miles above the Suttor, the Belyando is joined by another creek, which Gregory followed up to E. and SE., still in the belief that he was on the Suttor. This appears on modern maps as " MISTAKE CREEK," the name being apparently a sarcastic reference to Gregory's natural and justifiable mistake. A branch of this creek goes off to the SE. 45 miles above its junction with the Belyando, and is named MICLERE CREEK. Gregory camped on Miclere Creek on 8th November, in lat. 22 26' 1 6". Two days later he camped west of BLAIR ATHOL, on what is now known as GREGORY CREEK, which runs WNW. into Mistake Creek.

Leichhardt's MACKENZIE RIVER was reached on i$tb November. (QUEENSLAND i6-MiLE MAP.) On the ijth, below the junction of the COMET and MACKENZIE RIVERS, one of LEICHHARDT'S CAMPS on his second journey was identified. On the 22nd, the party arrived at Connor and Fitz's Station on the DAWSON RIVER (23 51' 15" S.). Thence, via Rannes (Hay's Station), Rawabelle, Boondooma, Tabinga, Nanango, Colinton, Kilcoy, Durundur and Caboolture. BRISBANE was reached on i6th December, 1856.

Gregory did not travel by dead reckoning and rarely gave even his own estimate of the distance covered. But his carefully taken latitudes and occasional lunar observations for longitude are thoroughly reliable, and enable us to lay down the position of his nightly camps with confidence on modern maps. Kennedy was also an expert surveyor and may have been no less accurate on his Cape York Peninsula trip, but his records perished with him

In addition to the charting of his route, Gregory made careful petrographical notes on the journey which we have followed, and these, so far as the Peninsula part is concerned, I have added to the map along his line of travel.

Gregory's expedition (March-July, 1858) in search of Leichhardt did not touch the Cape York Peninsula.