Page:Northmost Australia volume 2.djvu/38

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PALMER RIVER AND DISCOVERY OF GOLD
385

Creek."[1] Eight miles further, Camp 18 (2nd August) was made on the divide between the Mitchell and the ſ. From the Mitchell to Camp 18, Hann's route is now followed by the Telegraph Line from Walsh to Palmerville. The country rises northward from the Mitchell to the watershed on a gentle grade, the "bottom" being composed of mica-schist, but to the east of the Telegraph Line, and from Camp 18 to about 5 miles south, this rock rises abruptly in Mount Mulgrave to about 1,400 feet above the surrounding country.

On 3rd August, a northerly course was followed for 5 miles and a north-westerly for 15, over mica-schist country strewn with small quartz stones which were hard on unshod horses. The last 15 miles appear to have been in the drainage area of the Twelve Mile Creek, and {{sc|Camp|| 19 was pitched on a creek which Hann named Garnet Creek from the abundance of small garnets in the washdirt of his unsuccessful prospecting operations in search of gold. Garnet Creek, from a comparison of Warner's sketch-map with the modern 4-mile map, is evidently a tributary of the Twelve Mile Creek. Mount Daintree, "a high hill with perpendicular sides, composed of sandstone and conglomerate resting on quartzite," lay 3 miles east of the camp. The camp, according to a sun-observation, is in latitude 15° 51′ 59″ S., but according to the 4-mile map is in 15° 58′ S.

On 5th August, Hann and Taylor visited Mount Daintree, and after their return to Camp 19 the whole party moved 3 miles north-westward and camped on a river which was named the Palmer in honour of Sir Arthur Palmer, Chief Secretary of Queensland. {{sc|Camp|| 20. The camp must have been about the site of the subsequent Frome Native Police Station, about 2 miles up the river (east) from Lukinville, which, a few years later, was for some time a busy centre of alluvial gold-digging. Hann gives the latitude of the camp as 15° 49′ 14″ S.; according to the 4-mile map it is 15° 56′.

It was on the same river, and probably not far from Palmerville, that Kennedy camped on 15th September, 1848, when the natives displayed a determined hostility, burning the grass and attacking his party several times.

A sporting offer of a reward of half a pound of tobacco to the first member of Hann's party to discover gold had been open for some time, but it was probable that nothing was needed to whet their appetite for the precious metal. On 6th August, Warner claimed and obtained the reward, and other members of the party followed up the discovery by obtaining "prospects" from all the little ravines falling into Warner's Gully.

Hann made Camp 20 the headquarters of the Expedition from 5th to 21st August, while prospecting operations were vigorously

  1. Maps of Australia are crowded with "Sandy Creeks" ad nauseam.