One Mysteryabout ’strip was the identity of the person who accompanied him. notes “  He is never mentioned in detail again in either ’s notebooks or diary. This was unusualas usually described his companions, even if not always complimentary (for example“). Although the Nicholas', in their book Charles Darwin in Australia , where ableto confirm did pay the correct amount forthree horses and two adults to cross the river by ferry. They too can not figure out his identity.

An aspectsof ’sfield notes, is his mentioning granite often, but I found the granite countryis generally open woodland with little outcrop. I assume he may have beenlooking at the granite as a source of potential building stone. When in Charles stayed inthe barracks of the New South Wales Corp, but why?

When I wasdown by the , clearly granite country again, Ithought to myself this could be good alluvial gold country. Later that night Iwas reading a couple of pages on the making to the original , prepared by the BathurstHistorical Society and it mentioned that one of Cox’s men had discoveredgold nearby in atributary of the in1820s. They had apparently informed the government (still heavily influenced bythe New South Wales Corp.) but it had not been made public. Then it struck methat , asa geologist, may well have been looking for a likely source of the gold. Thismight explain his seeking out granitic occurrences. Maybe his mysterytravelling companion was a government agent. Further if you change Eu to Au, in a rock he collected and described as white ritic ore, you get Auritic ore which is a good term for a goldbearing mineralized rock, perhaps a Quartz vein.

Gold was discovery officially by William Hargrauves, near , not so far away,in 1850 and the rest is history.