﻿NO. 



SMITHSONIAN EXPLORATIONS, I926 



103 



deep, wet, hothouse valleys, have scarcely been touched ; and this 

 notwithstanding the work done by a host of collectors. 



Accordingly, except for a few days of collecting in the denuded 

 Port Royal Mountains, the region of Mount Diablo, the famous 

 Fern Gully, and several localities reached readily from Kingston, 

 effort was centered by Dr. Maxon at two points in the Blue Mountain 

 range : Cuna Cuna, and the high peaks east and west of Port- 

 land Gap. 



The Cuna Cuna region, which takes its name from a low gap 

 (about 2,400 feet), lies at the eastern end of the Blue Mountain range 



Fig. III. — Tlic fern collection about to leave House Hill, at the edge of the 

 little-known Cuna Cuna region, facetiously dubbed " Back of Beyond." 



and is traversed by a passable trail, upon which, however, there is 

 no shelter. By good fortune it was possible to establish headquarters 

 at House Hill, an estate lying southwest of the Gap at about 1,500 

 feet, in the lee of the range : and from this point many trips were 

 taken to the Gap itself and to several of the neighboring peaks at 

 3,000 to 3,500 feet elevation — Gossamer Peak, Stone Hole Bump, 

 Maccasucker Bump — all of them previously unexplored. The region 

 is even wetter than the high peaks, an annual rainfall of 200 inches 

 being by no means uncommon, and the luxuriance and variety of 

 the fern flora, especially along the wet culminating crests and in 

 the deep forested ravines, rich beyond all expectation, for so low 

 an altitude. A most interesting feature here was the occurrence. 



