7 
From 2,600 feet we had to resume our track- cutting, no very light 
work for Whelan and myself when carrying forty-pound swags, and 
having not only to clear a track for the loaded boys next day but to 
find out the proper route to follow. Towards evening we arrived at 
the first water, at 4,050 feet, or 3,050 feet above our starting point 
in the morning, Mr. Bailey not only enduring the journey without 
serious fatigue, but making careful observations on the flora as he 
went along, the necessarily slow pace we travelled enabling him to do 
this at comparative leisure. The point we stopped at is known as the 
" Palm Camp," from a superb palm, beneath the spreading top of which 
we made our fire and slept. About 200 feet down on the west side, and 
not more than 300 yards from the palm tree, is a small running stream 
of pure clear ice-cold water, completely shaded by the tall scrub and 
beautiful tree ferns. The crest of the spur is not more than 50 yards 
wide, and falls off abruptly on each side into the depths below. There 
are many very tall trees and some of considerable size, especially Kauri 
pines, which attain gigantic dimensions. The lawyer vine and stinging- 
tree are left behind at about 2,000 feet, but all the way up is a thick 
wiry undergrowth, which places track-cutting outside the pale of 
amusement. The south peak of Bellenden-Ker was still 1,000 feet 
above us, through six miles of heavy scrub with no track cut. 
On Priday, the 21st, Broadbent arrived with five boys loaded 
with provisions and camp utensils. The temperature at night was 54 
degrees, at mid-day 62 degrees, and the water 54 degrees. 
While Mr. Bailey was collecting round the camp, Whelan and 
myself cut a track on to the second water, a stream similar to the first, 
about two miles further on. 
On Saturday, the 22nd, the whole party started for the summit 
and arrived on the south peak about 2 o'clock. The vegetation here is 
one tangled solid mass, impenetrable without the cane-knife. All 
hands were busy with knives and tomahawks for about three hours to 
clear enough space to camp on. All around and below us were clouds 
and mist, the clouds breaking on the summit of the mountain and 
discharging a light drizzling rain. The camp for the night was only 
temporary, and as heavy rain fell and ran under the oil-cloth and we 
were all lying with some part in the water, and the thermometer 
at 48 degrees, with an ice-cold wind blowing, it is natural to report 
that nobody slept very much that night, and no one had any desire 
to repeat the experience. My chief anxiety was for Mr. Bailey, who, 
however, bore the unpleasant ordeal and all other unpleasant priva- 
tions during the trip with a cheerful fortitude highly creditable to a 
man of his agC) and very gratifying to myself. Mr. Broadbent was 
also a hardworking, contented companion. 
Sunday, the 23rd, was a wet, cold, miserable day, the thermometer 
at noon only 56 degrees, with a westerly wind, bleak and chilly enough 
to make the blackboys crouch shivering round the fire. Whelan and 
myself started out to cut a track to the centre peak, about two 
miles off, through indescribable vegetation, the worst of which is a 
drachophylium tree, bearing a splendid flower, with long, tough, gnarled, 
wiry branches all tangled together. JN^one of the other peaks could be 
seen, nor was Bartle Erere visible across the intervening abyss, dense 
white clouds hiding all things beneath an impenetrable veil. We 
could only guess at the exact position of the centre peak. The whole 
south end of Bellenden-Ker from the centre peak broadens out to 
