Ixii ITINERAEY. ' 



serve to show that a very great deal, and probably of remarkable 

 interest, yet awaits discovery. 



During the day with a shade temperature of about 64° F., it was 

 very pleasant on the summit, except when thick mists or clouds lay 

 over the mountain and the temperature would sink rapidly many 

 degrees below that. The nights to us coast-dwellers were very cold, 

 the temperature ranging on occasions to as low as between 44"-47° F., 

 though probably in July and August it may be higher, and lower in 

 December and January, as would naturally be the case. The morning 

 was nearly as cold ; and early collecting was hardly a joy, as even if 

 there were no rainy mists or actual rain to soak one through, there 

 was little to choose between these and the dripping bushes and satu- 

 rated thick felting of dead and living small plants into which one often 

 had to penetrate to collect plants or search for animals. The water or 

 moisture in tliese places struck one's body as almost icy. Once we had 

 attempted an early dip in one of the very clear pools with sandy 

 bottom, but in the chilly atmosphere we did not repeat it. 



Often in the course of long tramps, heavy passing clouds would 

 settle on the mountain, coming on so suddenly and quickly that at 

 times one might be caught high up on some ridge, and it was a time 

 for speculation as to whether they would shift or settle for the rest of 

 the day. Luckily they always passed away after a little time, otherwise 

 a descent from some of the ridges and the return to camp might have 

 been rather doubtful, as there would be but an opaque whiteness 

 around, and at times we might be miles from the camp with many 

 ridges to cross. In the rainy season these clouds might settle on 

 the mountain for days, so that collecting would be- no sinecure, if at 

 all possible. Even as it was, with the clouds settling down in the late 

 afternoon or evening, as a rule, and not rising till the morning, it was 

 a difficult matter drying the plants and keeping the papers dry in the 

 saturated atmosphare. One was obliged to use a fire under the little 

 tent, with a drying-pan for the press, which meant late sitting up and 

 constant attention to prevent injury. 



Once we had a very unpleasant experience in a thunderstorm of 

 great violence, the worst I have ever gone through. We had returned 

 to camp in the late afternoon to prepare specimens and avoid the 

 clouds which might settle, and were pottering about not very far away, 

 keeping a watch for insects or anything else that might be about 

 before dusk, when strong winds seemed suddenly to rise, and heavy 

 rain came on, with a very dull light, and then terrific lightning and 

 thunder broke all around, almost blinding and deafening in their 

 intensity. Luckily we were in the open, and not on any ridge where 

 the discharges might be taking place, but the thunder-claps were 

 literally at one's ears, and they echoed and re-echoed along the winding 

 gullies in the most astonishingly loud and sharp manner. It was 

 altogether a real clashing of the elements, and we were more than 

 glad when it passed away to Kukenaam on the west, receding in the 

 distance, but leaving behind peculiar echoes in some of the valleys. 

 The loud whistling winds in the Bonnetia trees, a id in these re- 

 sounding valleys, had been at times like some stormy sounds of the 

 ocean on the shore, especially when combined with pelting rain, and 



