107 
No. IV. 
After the return of Bailey and Broadbent from the mountain, we 
remained seven days collecting around the camp on Tringilburra 
Creek, beneath Mounts Torressa and Sophia. During this period we 
explored the whole surrounding country. One day Bailey and Broad- 
bent, when out together, found the skeleton of a myall among some 
rocks, and brought the skull in for the museum. Here also we got a 
carpet snake, about 8 feet long, containing a small wallaby. How so 
large a beas^ was swallowed by so small a reptile is a mystery to every- 
body but the snake. Carpet snakes are numerous all through 
that country, some of them being found up to 16 feet. We saw very 
few snakes; but the cold weather would account for their absence. 
There were few ticks and few leeches in the scrubs, but in the wet 
weather in the hot months leeches are in tens of thousands in the 
scrubs of the upper Barron and sea-coast ranges. We were not 
troubled by mosquitoes in any of the country we passed over, nor are 
they numerous anywhere on that coast at any time of the year, if we 
except the mangrove swamps and the tea-tree flats on the low wet lands 
of the coast. 
On the night of the 4th the temperature fell to 42 degrees. 
During the day Mr. Bailey and I were out under Mount Toressa, and 
on crossing tlie main creek had a small accident, happily attended by 
no serious consequences. During our stay here the Grovernment pros- 
pecting party arrived, having worked their way across from the 
Clohesy, along the head of Freshwater Creek, without any results. 
The work done was far too superficial and too hurried to be any 
reliable evidence of the minerals in the district passed over. Informa- 
tion collected on imperfect examination may be worse than useless by 
misleading others who would do the work much more effectively. 
The weather was beautifully fine, with cloudless moonlight nights. 
Temperature at night, 54 degrees ; midday, 80 degrees. 
On the 7th Whelan came over from the Mulgrave. On the 8th 
he and I started with three blackboys to go round the whole Bellenden- 
Ker Eange from south to north. We sent the boys on to meet us on 
the top of Barnard's Spur, and Whelan and I went up the main creek. 
A mile above the camp this creek is broken by a succession of mag- 
nificent falls. Ascent is difficult and dangerous. One must possess 
trained muscles and be sure of eye and foot and hand. A slight mis- 
take on the face of a cliff or a slip on a narrow ledge would end in 
swift and certain destruction. The mountain spurs approach on each 
side and end suddenly in walls of perpendicular or overhanging rocks. 
One scene is alone worth all the journey, and, happily, that can be 
approached from Barnard's Spur by a route easily accessible even by 
ladies. Many a painter and landscape photographer will yet give that 
splendid picture to the world. Descending a forest spur to the edge 
of the creek you stand out on a projecting shelf of rock clear of all 
obstructions, and command a perfect view of three entirely different 
scenes. On the right hand, close beside you, is a fall descending 
100 feet into a vast circular basin cut out of the solid rock. Imme- 
diately below that are two other falls, presenting only the curve 
of the foam-crested torrent rolling over the edge of the abyss. 
On the left is a deep clear pool 100 yards long between two vertical 
walls of rock. The upper end to this pool receives the whole 
