6o Director s Annual Report. 



from this point on would be a series of more or less impassable 

 waterfalls. Desiring to satisfy myself on this important point be- 

 fore returning for the day, I stripped off all my wearing apparel, 

 save a stiff-brimmed rain hat, swam across the pool at the foot of 

 the falls, and started to pick my way up the slippery rock over 

 which the water poured. When three-fourths of the way up, \\\y 

 hands and feet suddenh' slipped from under me. Coming down 

 violently on my arm and side, and falling in such a way as to 

 strike my head a stunning blow on a projec^ting rock, I rolled back 

 into the pool of cold mountain water in an almost helpless con- 

 dition. Fortunately, I was not completely stunned by the blow on 

 my head, owing to the prote(5lton afforded by the stiff brim of my- 

 hat. I was severely bruised as it was, but the shock of dropping 

 backward into the pool revived me sufficiently to enable me to 

 escape drowning. However, it took some time after I had pulled 

 ni3'self out of the water, to regain my strength. The mishap was 

 a sufficient adventure for the day, and an experience that will 

 never be forgotten. 



After a day or so of rest, I had sufficiently recovered from my 

 injuries to resume the quest. On inquiry, a native boy was found, 

 who felt sure he had been beyond the falls where my unpleasant 

 mishap had occurred. He was accordingly engaged as guide. 

 B}^ nine in the morning, we had arrived at the place wdiere I had 

 fallen into the pool. Without further delay my boy went two or 

 three hundred yards down the stream and began to pick his way 

 with great caution up along the side of the cliff on the Moanui 

 side of the valley. After great exertion, and wuth much difficulty, 

 in the time of which my guide got a fall which lamed him con- 

 siderably, we at last got above the falls, and down into the stream 

 again. Within ten minutes of the first falls, we found a second 

 one that had been completely hidden from sight and sound by the 

 first one encountered. It was seventy-five feet high, and poured 

 over the ledge at a place that completely blocked the way, making 

 further progress along the watercourse quite impossiljle. We could 

 now hear the roar of another and still larger falls, only a little 

 way on. The only thing remaining for us to do was to turn Ijack 

 and work our way up the Moanui side of the valley. This was 

 exceedingly difficult to do. After five hours of the most laliorious 

 climbing, we at last, by two o'clock, made the crest of the ridge 



[150] 



