102 WHI'l'I::, Trip to Cape York Peninsula. UlltoT 



(10/12/21) was 102 deg. Blackboy comi)lains that his feet 'close 

 up burn.' There was some poorer country about the Rocky 

 Ranges witli Casuarina and lianksia, mostly stunted, big areas 

 of Grass-tree are i)assed through, and scarcely any bird life 

 seen." 



Real tropical scrub (jungle), h(jwe\er, was the objective, and 

 when he finally reached it "there were dense thickets of bam- 

 boos and lawyer vines mazed and tangled from the ground up- 

 ward, forming a barrier through which one has constantly to 

 cut and crawl, in some jilaces completely obscuring a view of the 

 o\erarching trees." 



So much for the dry season. McLennan had a different tale 

 to tell when the rainy season began, with the new year. "Rain 

 nearl}- every day, and solid showers that would put an inch of 

 water in a pannikin in no time. Streams running like millraces. 

 A trip that could be done in three days comfortably, might now 

 take 30 days on account of the floods and treacherous nature of 

 the country. Horses would sink to the knees and deeper if they 

 left the track. One horse let off steam one day by trying to^ 

 buck off' the pack, but soon got tired of this in the boggy 

 ground." 



Prospectors told McLennan: "^'()u can't li\e in that Rocky 

 scrub now ; leeches will suck you dry, and then the beetles will 

 pick your bones." But he ])ersisted, and got something of what 

 he was promised. Leeches sometimes filled the boots with blood 

 from their bites. "Beetles — the air is thick with them; the 

 ground a moving ravening mass, rolling, tumbling inches deep, 

 and devouring every fallen scrap of food. They a])pear after 

 dark." 



"Rain falls in chunks. The ground inside the tent is like a 

 saturated sjionge, water flowing down the ridge in all directions. 

 Fortunately there is a big Termites' mound close by, which I hol- 

 lowed out for a fireplace. Tommy the blackboy got sufficient 

 pa])erbark to make a rough shelter oxer it, a dry fireplace is an 

 absolute necessity in these i)arts." 



"Monday, 20/2/22: "The excessive moisture is playing the 

 deuce with everything. Flour and tea have gone mouldy ; sugar 

 is melting; salt beef, nearly all i)utrid, and we haven't been able 

 to get any game to date. ?>lankets are wet and mouldy, cannot 

 get them dry. It is impossible to do any writing with pen and 

 ink, as the pai)cr is saturated with moisture." 



MokK vSlDKI.U'.HT.S 



Takhui "Snaps" in Tree-tops. — I>ird ( Hlack-backed I'.utcherj 

 sat on nest till I got within 6 feet. Taking "snaps" was rather 

 a diflicult job. I had to stand upright on a swaying limb, one 

 leg lightly braced against a small uitright branch, top of camera 

 just under my chin. Was .so intent on my work that 1 nearly 

 took a step sideways, to get better look at the view-finder; just 

 remembered in time that I was 40 feet from the ground. 



