WE CLIMB TO THE SUMMIT 51 



panion caught a number of moths. The sides of 

 the valley were here very steep and covered with 

 grass, but we soon discovered that the ground was 

 remarkably brittle. 



We kept to the bed of the stream until the 

 " Crown " rock was reached. The stream here 

 was full of fallen trees, every one of them tenanted 

 by a pair or more of white terns. The trees were 

 lying at all angles, several of them completely 

 blocked our passage, while the sides of the valley 

 were literally covered with dead branches, which 

 lay partly or wholly overgrown by the ferns and 

 grass, so that our progress was extremely slow 

 and tedious. Every now and again a moth 

 fluttered out from under our feet, and many were 

 captured. 



A little further on the bed of the stream was dry 

 and full of boulders of all sizes, round which we 

 had to make a wide detour. At last we reached 

 the ' Crown " rock, where a halt was made for 

 luncheon. 



After a too short half -hour's rest we started 

 our climb again, and soon found that we still had 

 the most difficult part of our journey in front, 

 for after we had skirted the " Crown " rock we 

 came to a narrow ridge of crumbling ground. 

 covered with grass but giving no safe foothold. 

 On each side of us the ground sloped down 

 precipitously for several hundred feet, and a slip 

 would have been disastrous. For some distance 



