Page:Northmost Australia volume 2.djvu/383

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714
NORTHMOST AUSTRALIA

report of which it was an essential part, and has apparently been lost between the various departments through which it passed. I have, however, been able to reconstruct it, from my field notebooks, and this new compilation, as given herewith, in the region covered by the Mcllwraith Range, differs materially from the current issue of the official map, Sheet 2oC, although it in no instance conflicts with Mr. Embley's surveyed lines.

In 1910, JOHN DICKIE, JAMES DICK AND ARTHUR H. SHEFFIELD made a tour through the Mcllwraith to the Macrossan Range, with some Government assistance. Dickie, the leader, so far as I am aware, made no report except the few lines paraphrased at the end of this chapter. The history of the expedition was written by Dick in a report dated Cooktown, I2th November, 1910. An abstract of this report was published in the Queensland Government Mining Journal of 15th December, and was accompanied by a sketch-map on the scale of 8 miles to an inch, drawn at the Geological Survey Office, Brisbane. Mr. Dick also read a paper on the subject before the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia, Queensland Branch, on 3 1st May, 1911.

Numerous difficulties, arising out of my attempt to follow the expedition on the map, led to a correspondence with Mr. Dick, and it was seen that the printed abstract must have omitted some portions of the narrative which were of importance from a geographical point of view, and that the writer's meaning, in some cases, had not been fully grasped by the editor. Mr. Dick, to whose letters of I9th February, 1911, and 5th and 1 2th May, 1912, I am particularly indebted, was kind enough to send me the 4-mile map which had accompanied his report, and which had been returned to him. Through the courtesy of Mr. Henry Marshall, Under- Secretary for Mines, I have been able to peruse the manuscript of Mr. Dick's report.

Finally, all the above sources of information having been exhausted, I borrowed the DIARY which Mr. Dick kept while in the field. From the material which had thus accumulated in my hands, I have been able to add much useful information to the map.

The party LEFT COOKTOWN on Stb June, 1910. From the railway terminus at the Laura they followed either the Telegraph line or roads. Passing Yarraden and Ebagoolah (Hamilton Goldfield) (MAP F) and the township of Coen (MAP C), they reached MEIN TELEGRAPH STATION on 2/th June.

Leaving MEIN on 1st July, the course taken was E. by N., first crossing a portion of the GEIKIE SANDSTONE TABLELAND. Near the head of CLAYHOLE CREEK, a tributary of the Batavia River, the party saw, about 6 miles from Mein, the remains of a NATIVE POLICE CAMP, which must have dated from about 1887, as it was erected for the protection of the Telegraph Construction party. FROG HOLLOW and Fox's CREEK, tributaries of the Batavia River, were