110

Crohamhurst,
[Beerwah],
18th April, 1939.

My dear Mr. [Watson],

On receipt of your letter of 8th instant,
I copied or rather traced your drawing with notes and sent it to
Mr. [Cahill], and last Sunday he motored up to see me. He was here
since 1885, I believe, and he, too, is positive that no such
collapse took place but every one remembers a landslide from the
lower part. It would therefore be very inadvisable to state
this as a positive fact, though you might say that some people
had observed something of the sort. Mr. [Cahill] also states that
the name [Beerwah] is not right; it should be Berriway or Berriwur.
It has been stated to be the same as Burwah, but this is quite
wrong.

Also you want to be sure to state that the
name was given by [Cook] to [Crook Neck] because of its resemblance
to a Glass House or factory and that the name "[Glass House Mountains]"
came later. The legend about the mountain glittering in the sun
like glass is a fable. The names are said to mean mother, father
and the various children. Beerwah is the father, Tibrowackem is
the mother, and Conowrin is said to mean ejected, and this is of
great interest because I head many years ago that the blacks said
that the mountains used to throw firesticks at one another which
would certainly show that the blacks must have seen them in
eruption and this would mean that the intelligent human race were
as old as the time when these mountains were active. About
5,000,000 years! and this would be a remark of value though old
[Aunt Kitty] of the Methodist Church would not like to hear it. I
am returning the print but I do not think that such a thing as a
time table picture would prove much as they were notoriously
careless as you will see if you examine pictures of old Brisbane
which are mostly terribly out in drawing as I could show you
conclusively from those in the Oxley collection and also those
at Newstead Artists like publicans make the most extreme use of
their licence.

[left margin]
Judging from Mr. [Jone]'s first letter,
he first learned this from Mr. [Grigor]
after his receipt of my first letter to him.
(sgd.) F.J.W.