Page:Northmost Australia volume 2.djvu/56

Rh PETER BOTTE rises to the height of 3,311 feet, and slopes steeply-down to Captain Cook's " CAPE TRIBULATION."

The BLOMFIELD RIVER, which is barely 30 miles long, reaches the Pacific on a north-easterly course. Hann's idea was, without crossing this river, to follow it up in the hope that it would take him some way on his course, and lead him into better country. The word " country" is used here as Hann regarded it from his point of view, that is, country fit to travel over. As " country," from an agricultural point of view, the Blomfield is good enough. Its cleared scrub land, in the present day grows SUGAR-CANE and is a valuable asset of the State.

CAMP 55 was pitched on the left bank of the BLOMFIELD on yd October.

The river, indeed, followed a course which would have taken the expedition for some distance south, had it been possible to follow it. The banks, however, were so steep and so scrubby that it became necessary to leave it at Camp 55, and take to the hills.

It would be unprofitable, even if it were possible, to follow minutely the daily record of Hann's wanderings in the SCRUB. His one idea was to GET AWAY SOUTH, and to this end he and his companions toiled, and struggled day after day. Paths were laboriously hewn through the jungle and the horses were led on ; and as often as not it was labour lost, as some insurmountable obstacle would force them back on their tracks, or round in a direction that was not at all to their liking Until he tackled the Annan (which he called the Endeavour), Hann, looking back, forgot all his previous troubles, and declared that " THE EXPEDITION HAD BEEN A PLEASURE TRIP." He added that SINCE CROSSING THE Endeavour (ANNAN) " there have been NOTHING BUT TROUBLES AND DIFFICULTIES, with still more ahead, and how they will end remains to be proved." Above all, there was no time for anything like careful charting. Already on the second day from Camp 55 ($th October) Hann had LEFT THE waters of the BLOMFIELD BEHIND and was on those of the DAINTREE RIVER, without knowing it. The course of the DAINTREE was at that time unknown to him and all the world, and as for landmarks, he might as well have been travelling through a dark tunnel. The DAINTREE RIVER was discovered and named after Richard Daintree, then Agent-General for Queensland, formerly Government Geologist, by G. Elphinstone Dalrymple in 1873. On the fourth day (fth October) his CAMP 59 was on the "WEST NORMANBY," one of the heads of the river which he had himself named, but he never suspected the fact. By this time he had gained, from Camp 55, at most 4 miles of the desired southing and something like 23 miles of westing. Probably the actual distance travelled was not less than 40 miles.

The party had hardly gone a mile west of Camp 59, on 8th