schooner Crest of the Wave in the storm was later sketched in a painting. A large storm surge, reportedly high, swept across Princess Charlotte Bay and then inland about , destroying anything left of the Bathurst Bay pearling fleet and the settlement. An eyewitness, constable J. M. Kenny, reported that a storm surge swept over their camp at Barrow Point atop a -high ridge and reached inland, the largest storm surge ever recorded. However, reviewing the evidence for this surge, some scientists modeled a surge only to in height, based on the official central pressure. They also surveyed the area, seeking wave-cut escarpments and deposits characteristic of storm events, but found none higher than . Of the surge, they suggested an incorrectly cited ground level or an involvement of freshwater (rain) flooding. A later study considers this conclusion likely premature and questions the barometer reading as unreliable and not representative of the actual lowest pressure. This subsequent study also examined new evidence of exceptionally high storm surge and inundation. The cyclone continued southwest over Cape York Peninsula, emerging over the Gulf of Carpentaria, before doubling back and dissipating on 10 March. Casualties The exact number of casualties is not known, as many deaths were not recorded. Estimates range between 307 and 410. In September 1899, the Queensland Marine Department published a list of 247 known fatalities. The Queensland Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages has 283 registered deaths attributed to the cyclone, including 250 on pearling ships. One of the pearling fleet owners estimated another 30 people not officially registered as crew were killed and not reported to the Cooktown Registrar. Around 100 Aboriginal Australians were killed but not recorded, as Aboriginal people were not counted as part of the population at the time. They had tried to help shipwrecked men, but the back surge caught them and swept them into the sea. Only eight Aboriginal people were recorded among the casualties, all of whom died on shore. The Queensland Historical Atlas reported the death toll as "307 pearl divers and sailors and an unreported number of Aborigines". Aftermath People found thousands of fish and some sharks and dolphins several kilometres (miles) inland, and the storm embedded rocks into trees. On Flinders Island (Queensland), people found dolphins on the cliffs; however, this finding does not necessarily indicate a surge of this height; on this exposed site, wave run-up readily can