Page:Northmost Australia volume 2.djvu/100

Rh the report on my explorations of 1879-80 in the Cape York Peninsula.

Having become convinced that Mulligan had intentionally left much to be explained by the map, I made an effort to trace the latter, and I am indebted to Mr. A. R. Macdonald, lately Under-secretary for Mines, for a copy of a record of the Department of Lands (Survey Branch), inscribed as in the footnote. It is evident that Warner's map was received between 27th March and June, 1876, as from no other source could the information relating to Mulligan's explorations have been derived. The lines of alternate dot and dash showing " Mulligan's Track " depict first that portion of his fifth, or official, journey lying between the head of the Palmer and (via the heads of the Mitchell and Wild Rivers) the " main divide " between the Herbert River and the Lynd, and second, that portion of the same journey from the confluence of the Lynd and Mitchell to the Lukin (Holroyd) River and thence to the Normanby River north of the present " Welcome " Railway Station. The line of dash and two dots showing " Mulligan's second trip, 1875," depicts only 32 miles (from the Hodgkinson River northward) of what I have described as the "third" trip (1874).

It was gratifying to find that the track of the fifth or official trip, so far as the tracing showed it, agreed in a remarkable manner with the track as laid down by me from the narrative before the tracing came into my possession. The only differences were due to my having much more complete maps to work on than were available to the compiler of June, 1876.

The tracing throws no light on Mulligan's four previous trips, the first of which led directly to the opening of the Palmer Goldfield. So far as I am aware their tracks are now for the first time laid down on the maps accompanying this volume.

The party LEFT COOKTOWN with twenty-two horses, on 29tb April, 1875, and travelled via the FOUR-MILE and "Coward's Track" to the NORMANBY DIGGINGS. (SEE MAP E.) COWARD'S TRACK, as already explained, is the westmost of two roads up the Normanby valley, and follows the head known as LAKE CREEK. (SEE MAP G.)

' The NORMANBY COUNTRY, as well as the HEADS OF THE LAURA," says Mulligan, " is about the best country to be seen in the north. Little and Byers are running their fat cattle on the extreme east head of the Laura. Here we stop to cure sufficient beef for our trip. Paid 30 for a bullock, which, with 200 Ib. ham and suet, we reckon will do us for a few months."