old fellow also described minutely the different waters passed by Burke,
and the way in which the men subsisted on the seeds of the nardoo plant,
all of which he must have heard from other natives.

After waiting a month, Hodgkinson returned, bringing the news of the
rescue of King and the fate of Burke and Wills. This explained McKinlay's
discovery as that of Gray's body, the narrative of the fight and massacre
being merely ornamental additions by the natives. After an easterly
excursion, in which he visited the two graves on Cooper's Creek, McKinlay
started definitely north. It is difficult to follow without a map the
Journal containing the record of his travel during the first weeks. Not
only does he give the native name of every small lakelet and waterhole in
full, but he omits to give the bearing of his daily course.

A northerly course was however, in the main pursued, and Mckinlay
describes the country crossed as first-class pastoral land. As it was
then the dry season of the year, immediately preceding the rains, it
proves what an abnormally severe season must have been encountered by
Sturt when that explorer was turned back on his last trip in much the
same latitude. On the 27th of February, the wet season of the tropics set
in; but fortunately the party found a refuge among some stony hills and
sand-ridges, in the neighbourhood of which they were camped, though at
one time they were completely surrounded by water. On March 10th, the
rain had abated sufficiently to allow them to resume their journey; but
the main creek which they still continued to follow up north was so boggy
and swollen that they were forced to keep some distance from its banks.
This river, which McKinlay called the Mueller, is one of the main rivers
of Central Australia, and an important affluent of Lake Eyre, and is now
known as the Diamantina. McKinlay left it at the point where it comes
from the north-west, and following up a tributary, he crossed the
dividing range, there called the McKinlay Range, in about the same
locality as Burke's crossing. He had christened many of the inland
watercourses on his way across, but most of his names have been replaced
by others, it having been difficult subsequently to identify them. In
many cases, the watercourses which he thought to be independent creeks,
are but ana-branches of the Diamantina.

Passing through good travelling country, and finding ample grass and
water, he reached the Leichhardt Riv