12 
the Eussell, now nearly deserted. In tlie morning we went on twelve 
miles to a bora ground called " Choonbine," where w^e met our two 
boys who had gone there the day before to meet a native black, who 
was to accompany us to the summit of Bartle Frere. 
Finding all three there, w^e started up the mountain about 2 o'clock. 
The ascent, as usual, was through thick scrub, and after ascending a 
few hundred feet we came on old marks made by Christie Palmerston 
and a band of eight myalls who had gone up there in October, 1886. 
We camped that night on a narrow ridge 2,000 feet high, a running 
creek a couple of hundred feet down to the westward. 
On Monday, the 22nd, we resumed the ascent, passing through 
thick heavy timber and enormous granite rocks. At 3,000 feet we 
came on one of Palmerston' s camps on the edge of a landslip that 
formed a precipice on the east side of the spur. 
At 4,000 feet we found a small stream of delightfully cool pure 
water, and made some tea and ate a few sandwiches under a cold 
drizzling rain. We arrived on the summit about 3 o'clock, and found 
the trees marked by Palmerston, and Mr. Jack, the geologist, on the 
9th of February, 1888, and October 2Gth, 1886. The aneroid made 
the highest point exactly 5,000 feet, the same height as the south 
end of Beilenden-Ker, and 200 feet lower than the centre peak. 
There is no doubt whatever in my mind that Bellenden-Ker is at least 
150 feet higher than Bartle Erere, allowing for all the barometric 
variations. Strange to say, though these two mountains stand facing 
each other, divided only by a deep valley drained by a few granite 
creeks, the vegetation of one is entirely different from that of the other. 
There is no trace on Bartle Frere of the dome-shaped tree and the 
DracopJiylliim which cover the whole south, end of Bellenden-Ker. 
All the crest of Bartle Frere is covered by confused masses of granite 
rocks, some of the isolated boulders 20 to 50 feet high. There are 
bare patches covered only by loose stones and stunted shrubs a couple 
of feet in length. The wdiole summit is a wild, savage, inhospitable- 
looking region, fit to be regarded as that dismal spot " AVhere the 
Old Earthquake Demon nursed her young Euiu." And yet there 
are beautiful flowering trees and lovely orchids and rare and splendid 
plants growing among those thunder-scarred and merciless rocks. 
Some specimens w^e collected that evening, and others were obtained 
next day. "We camped all night on the highest point beside a granite 
rock. After a couple of hours collecting in the morning we started 
to descend. We saw nothing from the summit but driving masses of 
clouds above, below, and around us. Once only through a "wind- 
divided chasm of wandering mist" we saw, for a few seconds, the dark 
peaks of Bellenden-Ker, and the closing clouds shut them out for 
ever. There was a weird fascination, too, on that lone peak among 
the warring clouds, the spectral mists, the black pitiless rocks, and 
the moaning of desolate wnnds, but poetry was not the study of the 
moment, and we tore ourselves away without a pang. 
After descending 2,000 feet, the myall — by special request — 
turned down another spur as a short cut, avoiding the route round by 
Choonbine. It certainly did cut off a few miles, but as we went down 
one place, about 1,400 feet in apparently not more than half-a-mile, 
Yabba's short cut is not likely to become popular as a direct route to 
or from the top of Bartle Frere. After emerging on the track to the 
