BREAKING THE GROUND 
sometimes a pleasantly cool evening. Towards night- 
fall the S.E. monsoon dies away, and the same holds 
good for Yule Island and Hood’s Bay. For some 
distance inland these conditions prevail, but after 
Ekeikei (1500 feet) there is a decided change. Con- 
siderable humidity prevails in the forest, and although 
at midday the heat is scarcely less oppressive than on 
the coast, yet the traveller is sustained by the pros- 
pect of relief, for the evenings are deliciously cool. 
The average day, too, was not unbearably hot at 
these higher altitudes. In the neighbourhood of the 
Deeanay precipice, owing to the dense forest and the 
plentiful streams, it is quite cool all day, and at 
Dinawa (3600 feet), although we have recorded noon 
temperatures of 120° in the sun, the average at 4 A.M. 
was from 63° to 65°. Winds were infrequent, but at 
night there was a brief land breeze from the higher 
mountains. 
On the Kebea the climatic conditions are very 
similar, but there is more mist, and in the morning 
the valleys are filled with great masses of white 
rolling cloud, which rise and disappear as the sun 
gains power. ‘These vapours sometimes assume a 
perfectly level surface, so that they resemble an ocean 
or a vast plain of snow, through which the higher 
peaks rise like islands. At Mafalu the average tem- 
perature was down to 59° F. at nights, and highest in 
day 80° under the leafage of the forest, and mist and 
rain were almost continual from I1 A.M. to 3 P.M. 
As the sun sank the heavens would clear, and the mist 
floated past in thin wreaths, or lay still in long, ghostly 
trails if no wind blew. The nights were often cold, 
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