179 



killed, but the forest conditions are not destroyed. The 

 seedlings of the conifers are sprouting creepers such as 

 the three Rubus (by the way, this is the highest level 

 I have known Rubus moluccensis to grow), and the 

 climbing Gleichenia and polypods. A few tufts of grass 

 appear. All is sopping wet, and that a fire could run 

 in such dank vegetation seems impossible. There is 

 enough debris from the skeleton conifers above to make 

 a big blaze, and all the natives are waiting for is a spell 

 of dry weather to reduce everything to- tinder dryness, 



when they will put a fire stick in. It is seldom that 



what one would wear in summer in Melbourne. A big 

 fire outside my tent did not seem to make much differ- 

 ence, and I turned in all-standing, with every article of 

 clothing I could find piled on top of me. The boys 

 would have suffered still more, I imagine, had they 

 slept under canvas, but fortunately there was a sod 

 hunting house into which they all managed to squeeze, 

 and there they kept perfectly warm till morning. All 

 the country was white with hoar-frost as five of us 

 made our way towards the crest. All the other boys 

 had a holiday to hunt and do as they liked. The three 



one sees the grass land in its earliest stages, and I was that came with me were my guide and two boys carry - 

 glad to take a good look at this. 



Dropping down the other side we came on a stream 

 which I was assured was the Busu, which seemed im- 

 possible, as I had crossed a ridge of 2,000 feet which 

 now stood between me and the valley of the Busu. 

 Afterwards, on my way down from Sarawaket, I in- 

 vestigated this and found that while I had been 

 labourionsly clambering over the divide the river had 

 one to ground and burrowed its way under. This 

 disappearance of rivers is a common feature of lime- 

 stone formation, but never have I known so remarkable 



The 

 The 



a tunnelling. We followed up the river which mean- 

 dered through a succession of depressions which at times 

 were deep and precipitous enough to call gorges, 

 rock faces exposed showed limestone everywhere, 

 coniferous forests were now rapidly disappearing, and 

 the grass areas were becoming large. The same leathery 

 leafed shrubs already mentioned were found also ; the 

 tree fern and rhododendron, a small shrub (identified 



and a dais\ 



ing the instruments, and police boy Jack. All the 

 lower shoulder is grass country with rhododendrons and 

 the same sclerophyllous bushes and tree ferns. Lime- 

 stone outcrops all over the steep slopes, and the country, 



until the last climb, is very up and down. The grass 

 is quite yellow and ripe for the fire. By 8 a.m. we 

 were on the top of the crest, only to find that another 

 crest, a higher one, lay to the north, and in between 

 was a deep ravine. On this, the lower crest, we found 

 a mark left by the Rev. Keysser, consisting of his 

 umbrella. The guide said there was another mark 

 below ground, but this we did not investigate, for T 

 was anxious to get on to ihe other peak before the 

 clouds came down. So I took a round of angles with 

 the theodolite, and some notes of the topography and 

 the boiling-point height, 12,484 feet, and at 9.30 

 started for the real peak. These two crests are 

 divided by a deep precipice at the bottom of which, 

 4,000 feet below, runs the Ogai River, which flows 

 south-west, debouching into the sea in the Huon Gulf, 



later as Diph/cosia) was common, ^ ^„^ 7 _ , ... „ - .. . ,. ,. , ,, 



{Brmhycome sp.) starred the young grass. Another of near L*V where i , 1S cal ed r /' t ?\ J* 1 



the heath family grows in the Dacrydium Libocedrus 



forest, and it seems to stand fire and so remains in the 

 open grass land. When the trees have gone this is 



Yaccinium blepharocalyx. It was near the top of the 

 Busu that I came on a couple of mountain wallaby, and 

 was fortunate enough to- knock one over with police 

 boy Jack's service rifle, much to the admiration of my- 

 bow and arrow follows, and no little surprise to my- 

 self. This animal weighed a round 56 lb., and had a 

 thick heavy dark red brown fur. I had hopes of 

 getting the skin down to Mr. Helbig, the missionary 

 at Sattelberg, who is so interested in such things, and 

 makes good leather. This I explained to my guide, but 



circumvent this valley and climb the higher peak meant 

 dropping down again to the shoulder from which we 

 had climbed, and then making a detour to round the 

 head of the precipice. It was clear that the climb I 

 had done was quite unnecessary, for I had to descend 

 to but a few hundred feet above the camp where 1 had 

 passed the night, and had I known there were two crests 

 I might have entirely avoided the first by steering a 

 straight course to the head of the precipice. That the 

 higher peak is not visible from camp is due to a little 

 rise that stands between. It took an hour to come 

 down from the lower crest and work our way round 

 to the head of the valley. Here we found a very 

 pretty little lake with fern trees about it, which seemed 



evidently my words were not understood, for he later to }) - the source of the Q • behind wag a rathe , 



skinning it for me. 



in the evening brought me a shrivelled burnt up peau 

 de chagrin. It seems that, native fashion, they roasted 

 the kill whole complete and with its hair on, and to 

 carry out my wishes went to the trouble afterwards of 



I could only laugh. I hope I will 



get another. I set up my aerial to bring in Cavite's 1 

 p.m. signal, but failed to pick it up. This is the first 

 time I have failed to get time. We waited for the 

 laggards, for news came through that four had died 



a pidgin expression for fallen exhausted. 

 all turned up rather tired, but with 



which explained their latenes 



large area of moorland of a wet to boggy nature. 

 From the head of the valley to the top of Sarawaket 

 took another hour. This crest is less rounded, and is 

 covered with large limestone boulders. Like the south- 



east crest, the limestone strata terr 



the slope at 



on the road- 

 Later on they 

 several kangaroo rats, 



3 



and weariness. Two hours' further going took us to the 

 foot of the last climb. The crest of Sarawaket stands 

 now right over us, and I estimate it to be only 2,000 

 feet higher. Here at 11,752 feet we camped. 



19th November. — T was up till well after midnight 

 shooting stars for position, 

 p.m. I failed to get time, so 



fixed. 



Unfortunately, as at 1 



longitude was 



enough 



not 



bad 



to 



b- -— > ~ m y. 



The atmospherics were not 

 drown so strong a signal as Cavite's, besides I could 

 get snatches of N.P.O. and N.P.N. 's traffic, but the 

 signals were always wiped out unless T earthed the 



It was cold work at the theodolite and I wished 



Though the temperature at this altitude 

 at midnight was only 33 deg. Fahr., and there was 

 not a breath of wind, I felt so cold that it might have 

 registered zero. One's blood gets thin down below, 

 and the clothes I had brought up were really only 



grid, 

 for gloves, 

 midnight 



intervals all the way to the top, but on the north-west 

 crest these form quite high cliffs, so that one has to 

 choose the way up to avoid the worst of them. No- 

 where, however, is the climb in any way arduous. The 

 boiling-point height (subsequently corrected to sea 

 level barometer) worked out at 13,454 feet). 



» 



A magnificent but very short-lived view was obtained 

 from the highest boulder on which I set up my theodo- 

 lite. Then down came the clouds. The lower crest, 

 though about 2 miles distant, seemed but a stone's 

 throw away. The whole valley of the Markham looked 

 like an inland sea, and it was hard to credit the fact 

 that it was all grass land. The clouds came down 

 before I had completed my round of angles, and when 

 .next they blew away for a minute, all but the highest 

 peaks were blotted out, and below and around were 

 tumbling masses of white clouds, through which the 

 very high mountain lops stood like islands in the sea. 

 Sarawaket is separated from the Fmisterre proper by 

 a valley, yet they are sufficiently continuous, and so it 

 is regarded as the south-eastern end of that range, of 

 which it is the highest peak. ]\Iy journey back to 

 camp took U hours. The country between, once T 



