430 PROCEEDINGS OP SECTION E. 



with frost and jewelled with long icicles. At midday the 

 temperature in the sun was 70 deg. Fahr. on the top of the 

 highest peak. The unique views from the peaks of Mount 

 Victoria were most remarkable, 



" A glorion.s vi.sioii Ijurst upon tluur t<iglit, 

 A,s on the topmost peak they took their stand, 

 To gaze from that clear centre on tlie world, 

 And measure with their proud delighted eyes 

 The vast circumference, whose radius stretched 

 Seaward and landward, each forty miles. 

 Beneath their feet a burnished ocean lay, 

 Glittering in sunshine." 



Far away, on the one hand, lay the mysterious shores of 

 the north-east coast, and on the other the dotted waters of 

 Torres Straits, with its numerous islands and coral patches, 

 while far to the northward appeared the stupendous heights 

 of Mounts Albert Edward, Scratchley, Parkes, and Gillies, 

 so named by Sir Wm. MacGregor. The rock specimens 

 obtained from this Alpine region pointed to its limited 

 geological character, crystalline micaceous schist bemg abun- 

 dantly represented. Formerly geographers had thought that 

 the Owen Stanley Eange comprised the whole unbroken 

 mountain chain extending to the south-eastern peninsula, 

 but the observations of this famous expedition demonstrated 

 the existence of the disunion between Mounts Victoria 

 and Obree, which renders the recognition of a distinction 

 between the two mountain masses necessary. 



One of the first divisions of the Britisli possession is the 

 St. Joseph District, bordering Hall Sound, and overlooked 

 by the highlands of the Kovio Range and Mount Yule. 

 Watei-ed by a fine stream, the basin of the St. Joseph River 

 is luxuriant in vegetation, rich in soil, and opulent in culti- 

 vated products, among which the taro flourishes in great 

 abundance. The district has been extensively explored by 

 Sir Wilham MacGregor, and the conditions of the native 

 inhabitants investigated. At the close of 1890 the Kovis 

 Range and the summit of Mount Yule were successfully 

 explored by the expedition of the Victorian Branch of the 

 Royal Geographical Society of Australasia, commanded by 

 Mr. George Belford, an officer of the New Guinea Govern- 

 ment, under whose auspices the expedition was conducted. 

 After personally directing its organisation. His Honour the 

 Administrator accompanied the party for some distance 

 inland in the St. Joseph District, and having conducted the 

 explorers to its base, he left them to accomplish the ascent of 



