THE Settlement of Northern Australia has of late years been of such
rapid growth as to furnish matter for a collection of narratives,
which in the aggregate would make a large and interesting volume.
Prominent amongst these stands that of the Settlement of Cape York,
under the superintendence of Mr. Jardine, with which the gallant trip
of his two sons overland must ever be associated. It was a journey
which, but for the character and qualities of the Leader, might have
terminated as disastrously as that of his unfortunate, but no less
gallant predecessor, Kennedy. A brilliant achievement in
exploration, in a colony where exploring has become common and almost
devoid of interest, from the number of those yearly engaged in it,
its very success has prevented its attracting that share of public
attention to which its results very fully entitled it. Had it been
attended with any signal disaster, involving loss of life, it would
have been otherwise. Geographically, it has solved the question
hitherto undecided of the course of the northern rivers emptying into
the Gulf of Carpentaria, of which nothing was previously known but
their outlets, taken from the charts of the Dutch Navigators. It has
also made known, with tolerable definiteness, how much, or rather,
how little, of the "York Peninsula" is adapted for pastoral
occupation, whilst its success in taking the first stock overland,
and forming a cattle station at Newcastle Bay, has insured to the
Settlement at Somerset a necessary and welcome supply of fresh meat,
and done away with its dependence for supplies on importations by sea
of less nourishing salt provision.

Starting from the then farthest out-station of Northern Queensland
with a small herd of cattle, these hardy young bushmen met with and
successfully combated, almost every "accident by flood and field"
that could well occur in an expedition. First, an arid waterless