This was the site chosen for our second base of supplies, between the 
first camp and the top of the mountain. The tents were erected on the 
bare granite rocks, on each side a glorious stream rushing madly down 
the gorge, and lost in the curving vista far below. Overhead all round 
towered the tall steep mountains, covered by magnificent vegetation. 
The intention was to alloAV Mr. Bailey and Mr. Broadbent to 
collect here for a cou23le of days before starting up the mountain, and 
to enable the boys to bring up more supplies from the lower camp. 
The first night here was the first and last occasion on which I attempted 
to compose a poem. 
It was written in emulation of that heroic youth who carried the 
excelsior banner among the Alpine avalanches. 
The influence of the companionship of the Colonial Botanist will 
be traced here and there by the observant reader. 
The shades of night were falling fast, 
As o'er the mountain summit passed 
A botanist man, extremely nice, 
Who bore a plant with strange device, 
' ' Dendrobium hispidum. " 
His brow was stern, his beard below 
Looked white as the Antarctic snow. 
And like a silver bugle rung 
That weirdly scientific tongue, 
" Pogonatherum saccharoideum," 
In tall old trees he saw the bright 
Orchidian blossoms, pink and white. 
Above the spectral mosses shone, 
And from his lips escaped a groan, 
' ' Bulbophyllum purpurascens. " 
" Try not to climb," the young man said, 
"Beware the loose rocks overhead ; 
That granite creek is deep and wide." 
But loud that fearless voice replied, 
"Polypodium subauriculatum." 
*' Oh stay," the leader said, " and rest 
A half -hour on this turkey's nest 
A tear stole slowly from his eye, 
But still he answered with a sigh, 
" Acrostichum neglectum." 
'* Beware of every snake you see. 
Beware the awful stinging tree. 
Beware where cryptogams you seek," 
A voice replied across the creek, 
" Alsophila Rebeccae." 
At midday there as in the shade 
The pious men of that brigade 
Uttered a brief impromptu prayer, 
A voice called through the startled air, 
" Hymehophyllum javanicum." 
A botanist in the evening fog- 
Was found beside a bean-tree log. 
Still gras])ing like a patent vice 
A plant which bore the strange device 
"Bulbophyllum nematopodum." 
There in the twilight cold and gray 
So peacefully serene he lay. 
But at this stage — if not before — 
Two wild-eyed men with axes swore, 
"We'll kill you, Bailey!" 
From this stage henceforward the reader will find we had other 
work than poetry to meditate upon, and heights to climb far above 
Parnassus and the Heliconian Spring. 
a 
