i6i 
Multarri, as an assistant on the expedition. "We had then four boys 
of our own, the other three — Jimmy, Charley, and Butcher — being 
natives of Tanna. Butcher was sick for a week after the first day's 
journey, but recovered and worked well ever after. Jimmy was an 
active, powerful boy, a keen sportsman, and capable of great endurance. 
Altogether they were as good a lot of boys as we could have found in the 
colony, and worked cheerfully from start to finish, frequently under very 
dishearteniog conditions. On the following morning we all started for 
the summit and arrived there at 2 o'clock, Whelan and myself having cut 
through four miles of vegetation that must be seen to be understood. 
This was the most miserable night of the whole journey. "We camped 
where Whelan, Barnard, and I stayed all night on the first ascent. We 
required all the afternoon to clear enough space to erect a camp, so thick 
and hard were the trees and shrubs around us, A light drizzling rain 
was falling, the thermometer stood at 52 degrees, with a strong wind cold 
enough to freeze a Kamschatkan. At night the rain flowed under the 
camp, so we were all lying in more or less water, and nobody slept 
more than a couple of hours before the longed-for daylight arrived. 
Next day all the mountain was enveloped by clouds, a light rain 
falling, the trees dripping like a mild showerbath, and no view in any 
direction. Even the giant form of Chooreechillura was invisible across 
the intervening abyss. Whelan and I started to cut a track towards 
the centre peak, distant about two miles. What a wet, cold, miserable 
piece of work that was, the trees adding their heavy drops to the 
wretched drizzle from the clouds ! After half-a-mile was traversed we 
returned to the camp, which was now properly constructed for a few 
days' residence. Next day was also cold and wet, and Whelan started 
down the mountain, taking all the boys, except Multarri, to send up 
a fresh lot of provisions, as we contemplated staying on the summit 
for eight or ten days. Bailey, Broadbent, and Harold were out 
collecting, and I went away alone to continue the track to the centre 
peak through vegetation simply indescribable, and reached the crest of a 
low spur, covered like all the rest of the South Peak by the magnificent 
dome-top)ped tree described in a previous article. Mr. Bailey tells me 
this tree belongs to the myrtle family, and is entirely new to botanical 
science. In my official report is the following passage in reference to 
this tree : — 
" The whole south end of Bellenden-Iver from the centre peak 
broadens out to about three-quarters of a mile in width by two miles 
across from the peak to the outer edge opposite Bartle Frere. 
This area consists of low short spurs running in all directions, covered 
by thick vegetation and loose granite rocks, intersected by water- 
courses with beds of clean granite gravel. The trees are nearly all short 
and gnarled, and all, without exception, hard as bone. Many of them 
when cut prove to be highly and pleasantly odoriferous. Conspicuous 
among the vegetation is a dome-topped tree with foliage so thick that 
not a ray of sunlight penetrates, and the outer top is so perfectly level 
that two men viewing each other from the summit of two of these 
trees appear exactly as if they had protruded their heads from the 
domes of two green pavilions, only the heads visible. One beholds a 
strange and beautiful sight by ascending a tree and looking over the 
tops of the others, which appear like a lovely leading colour in the 
tesseraic floor of various shades of green covering the mountain away 
towards and over the centre peak." 
