Page:Northmost Australia volume 2.djvu/300

Rh found fine large water-holes, some of which appeared to be permanent. The channel was in sandstone rock and was about 40 yards in width, and well defined, but the banks were low.

" The Lukin country was similar to that of the Edward ; box flats to the east and poor sandy country westwards towards the coast.

" Away from the rivers in this flat country there is very little chance of getting any water. Sometimes one has to tap the trees for DRIHKING WATER, particularly on the Lower Alice country. The water from the trees has a somewhat mawkish taste.

"The Lukin River drains a large area of country about the main divide, and after coming down from the range, passes through some fairly well-grassed country, which extends a few miles on either side, principally on the south. Lower down, however, the river passes through poor country till it reaches the box flats previously mentioned. From our camp on the Lukin we made traverses up the river to the east and down to the west.

" Continuing our journey northward from where we first struck the Lukin, we began by crossing box flats bordering the river and then gradually got into low sand-ridge country, which continued until we reached the KENDALL RIVER.

" Here the river has a permanent stream of clear water about 3 feet deep between jhigh banb about 30 yards apart. It was difficult to find an easy crossing, so we travelled easterly up the stream, passing over very poor country for some miles till we reached a waterfall with a drop of about 16 feet. In the pool below the fall the iwater was go clear that we could distinctly see fishes and water-snakes swimming about."

[The river to which Mr. Embley gave the name of the Kendall is undoubtedly the most important water-course of the region Sin which it occurs. The Jardine Brothers' route north of the jimouth of the Holroyd River was considerably to the west of his, and he believed that he had identified their " Kendall Creek." The river named the Kendall by Mr. Embley has become, beyond che possibility of alteration, the Kendall River, de facto, but I am by no means satisfied that it is the Jardine Brothers' Kendall Creek, de jure.

Towards the end of 1885, Mr. Embley traversed his " Kendall River " down for about 10 miles (westward) below the point where le had crossed it in 1884. Between Mr. Embley's work and the 3ulf, the continuation of the river is conjectural, the map showing i dotted line running west-north-west, and I am informed that
 * he dotted line was so drawn to connect the river with an indentation

>f the coast shown on the Admiralty Chart. The chart in question, t may be remarked, is on a small scale and the indentation is very vague and sketchy.

Unfortunately, the Brothers Jardine and Richardson, their Surveyor, were travelling by different routes, in this part of their ourse, and their narratives are hard to reconcile. My conscienious analysis of their narratives, followed by a painstaking plotting f their routes, inclines me to the theory that Embley's Kendall liver must have split up on the coastal flat, below the westmost oint to which he traced it, and is represented by the Jardines' Thalia Creek " and " Tidal Inlet," while what they called Kendall Creek " is what appears on the modern map (Sheet 2oD)