16 
wide range of temperature and atmosphere between the sea-coast o£ ' 
Trinity Bay and the tablelands o£ the Upper Barron, or the cloud- 
capped summit of Bellenden-Ker. < 
The climate of the Cairns district on the sea level is one of 
perpetual heat and moisture. A seven years' residence on the Barron 
Eiver revealed an average summer shade heat of 92 with a rare maximum 
of lOi, and an average winter shade of 81 with a minimum of 54. 
On the Bellenden-Ker range the summer shade heat is about 82, the 
minimum temperature in winter about 29. What is called " fever" 
in the Cairns climate is more frequently far more the outcome of gross 
indiscretions in diet or drink, or supreme ignorant contempt for i 
ordinary hygienic laws, than the result of malaria or adverse climatic ' 
conditions. 
It appears to be my duty here to settle the question of who was j 
the first to ascend Bellenden-Ker, and I am now in a position to decide, • ' 
in a brief and summary fashion, so that there can be no room for 
further controversy. i 
There are two claimants, the one being Sub-inspector Johnstone | 
who says he made the ascent inl873, and Mr. W. Sayer, who claims to 
have been on the summit in 188G. Mr. Johnstone's official report is : 
before me. He started to Bellenden-Ker, from the Mulgrave Kiver, ; 
with Mr; Walter Hill and eight troopers. His description of the 
vegetation, and the point at which he turned back, shows clearly that |j 
he reached only the summit of Mount Toressa, or the spur connecting ^ 
it with Mouiii Sophia. He says, " We reached the centre peak of 
Bellenden-Ker at noon,' ' when he was not within ten miles of the centre : 
peak, nor could he possibly have done in less than three days what he 
imagined he had done in one. 
The fact is, he arrived there in the wet season, and all the peaks | 
of Bellenden-Ker being under the clouds and invisible he somewhat | 
hastily concluded that he had reached the top. 
It will only be necessary to add here that Bellenden-Ker is ? 
practically inaccessible from the direction Mr. Johnstone says he j 
ascended, and presents precipices five or six hundred feet high. I 
According to Mr. Johnstone's barometer, he reached a point in space j 
far above the summit of Bellenden-Ker ! Apparently, the instrument j 
was one of decidedly eccentric habits, or else Mr. Johnstone finished i 
his ascent in a balloon. 
Mr. W. A, Sayer was a gentleman sent to Cairns by Baron von 
Mueller to collect botanical specimens, and if possible to ascend the i 
Bellenden-Ker. The account of his attempts to reach the top forms a - 
record of a series of ludicrous mistakes, perhaps unparalleled in the j 
history of exploration. On the first effort he was out, six days from | 
Harvey's Creek and failed to reach any particular locality. The 
second time he started to reach the mountain by going up the Hussell : 
Eiver in a boat, and after thirty-four miles of navigation against a 1 
flooded river he was about ten miles farther from Bellenden-Ker than ■ 
his point of departure. This time he was out about a month without 
reaching even the foot of the mountain, and he and his companions seem 
to have spent most of the time capsizing themselves in the Eussell | 
and wandering about the scrubs, with no clothes on and nothing to eat, ) 
and not the remotest idea of their locality. 
