From the high lands, which
would render travelling along its banks extremely difficult, that I
passed to the east side of Mount McConnel, and reached by that route the
junction of the Suttor with the newly discovered river, which I called
the Burdekin, in acknowledgment of the liberal assistance which I
received from Mrs. Burdekin of Sidney, in the outfit of my expedition.
The course of this river is to the east by south; and I thought that it
would most probably enter the sea in the neighbourhood of Cape Upstart.
Flood marks, from fifteen to eighteen feet above the banks, showed that
an immense body of water occasionally sweeps down its wide channel.
I did not ascend Mount McConnel, but it seemed to be composed of a
species of domite. On the subordinate hills I observed sienite. The bed
of the river furnished quite a collection of primitive rocks: there were
pebbles of quartz, white, red, and grey; of granite; of sienite; of
felspathic porphyry, hornblende, and quartz-porphyry; and of slate-rock.
The morning was cloudless. In the afternoon, heavy cumuli, which
dissolved towards sunset; a strong wind from the north and north by east.
A very conspicuous hill, bearing E.N.E. from the junction of the rivers,
received the name of Mount Graham, after R. Graham, Esq., who had most
liberally contributed to my expedition.
