BREAKING THE GROUND 
spongy ground, thickly interwoven with roots, which 
impeded our progress and made the advance peculiarly 
toilsome, and the last stage to Dinawa was a long dip 
and a longer ascent. Once there, however, we were 
rewarded by a delightfully bracing climate and a 
glorious panorama of mountain scenery, a delight we 
often longed for at Mafalu, our furthest and highest 
point, where all view, save through an opening we 
ourselves cut in the trees, was denied us. Even that 
was generally obscured, so incessant was the rain and 
wetting mist. At favourable moments, however, we 
would see through our clearing the sunlight in the 
valley far below us, although we ourselves, dwelling 
as we did among the clouds, were denied that boon. 
Such then, in brief outline, were the changes of 
scenery through which we passed. The alternations 
of climate were not less varied. In Dutch New 
Guinea it was very hot and humid, often 150° F. in 
the sun and 110 in the shade. On “cool” nights 
we had temperatures varying from 75° to 80° At 
Port Moresby 160° was no uncommon temperature, 
and this was rendered worse by the lack of shade and 
the stony, arid country. The great heat begins to be 
felt about 11 a.M., and lasts until 3 P.M. during the 
season of the N.W. monsoon. The atmosphere is, how- 
ever, fairly dry at times, and the highest temperature 
is not nearly so unendurable as I have found 90° in 
the shade at Manaos, at the confluence of the Amazon 
and the Rio Negro, where the air is saturated, and 
one sits mopping oneself continually and praying for 
sunset, although even that brings but slight relief. 
This never happens at Port Moresby, where there is 
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