mals, and in that case they would have died singly and apart, and
their remains would in after years elude attention. A similar fate
probably befel the men.

Rumour has always been rife as to the locality of Leichhardt's death, and
suggestions the most hopelessly unlikely and inconsistent have been put
forward and seriously considered. At the same time, the only two reliable
marks, undoubtedly genuine and fitting in in every way with Leichhardt's
projected course of travel, have been neglected.

Leichhardt started from McPherson's station on the Cogoon, now perhaps
better known as Muckadilla Creek. There was a rumour, never
authenticated, that after he had proceeded nearly one hundred miles he
sent back a man with a report that he had passed through some splendid
pastoral land, but this is not at all likely to be true. The first
indication of him is then met with on the Barcoo (Victoria) whereon A.C.
Gregory, in charge of the Leichhardt Search Expedition, in 1858, found
his marked tree and other indications:--

"Continuing our route along the river (latitude 24 degrees 35 minutes;
longitude 36 degrees 6 minutes), we discovered a Moreton Bay ash, about
two feet in diameter, marked with the letter L on the east side, cut
through the bark about four feet from the ground, and near it the stumps
of some small trees that had been cut with a sharp axe, also a deep notch
cut in the side of a sloping tree, apparently to support the ridge-pole
of a tent, or some similar purpose; all indicating that a camp had been
established here by Leichhardt's party. No traces of stock could be
found; this however is easily accounted for, as the country had been
inundated last season."

There can be little doubt about the authenticity of the trace, and it at
once does away with the truth of the stories told to Hovenden Hely by the
blacks as to Leichhardt's murder on the Warrego River. Gregory then went
up the Thomson River but found no other mark, and returning followed that
river and Cooper's Creek down to South Australia. This camp of
Leichhardt's is easily understood. Then follows an account of the other
found by the same explorer in 1856, during an earlier expedition. This
was on the upper waters of Elsey Creek, and his description of it runs as
follows:--

"The smoke of bush fires was visible to the south, east, and north, and
several trees cut with iron axes were noticed near the camp. There were
also the remains of a hut, and the a