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below the knee. He had been out prospecting for several months 
with a miner named Chandler, who very kindly sent him to Choonbine 
to place his services at our disposal. 
At 3 o'clock p.m. on Sunday, the 21st of July, we started from 
Choonbine to ascend Chooreechillum. The route was through a thick 
scrub all the way to the summit. After ascending 2,000 feet we 
camped on the crest of a narrow spur about twelve yards wide, a 
running stream about 150 feet below us to the westward. "We made 
a bed of tree-ferns, and having no blankets the duties of the chamber- 
maid were of a light and irresponsible character. During the night 
Yabba was very restless, and twice he rose and walked round the 
camp. Somehow I mistrusted that smiling plausible savage. Twice 
he stood and gazed for some lime at the two sleeping blackboys, and 
now and then cast uneasy glaces at Whelan and myself Avho were 
about live yards away. Then he sat down and meditated by the fire. 
Who shall say what midnight thoughts were passing through the brain 
of that wild dark son of the mountains ? Perhaps he was calculating 
the chances of the future in case he brained us all with the tomahawk. 
But the scrub knife and the tomahawk were under my head, and I 
myself was very much awake, and any hostile movement by the gentle 
Yabba would have ended prematurely and abruptly, and the subsequent 
proceedings would not have interested him to any great extent. 
My suspicions will be shown later on to have been founded on a solid 
basis. 
On the 22nd we started up the mountain along a steep spur 
covered by tall heavy timber, and enormous masses of granite rocks. 
At 3,000 feet we passed the frame of a camp erected by Christie 
Palmerston, when he was up there with a lot of blacks and Mr. Jack, 
the geologist, in February, 1888. It stands on the edge of a precipice 
formed by a landslip. At 4,000 feet we halted half-an-hour beside a 
small rivulet of pure cold water, probably the head of the stream that 
descends about 2,000 feet almost perpendicularly on the eastern face 
of Bartle Prere, forming the Hume Black Falls, which may safely be 
classed among the highest in the world. These falls can be seen from 
steamers passing along the coast off Point Cooper, between the John- 
stone E-iver and Pranklyn Islands. At 4,500 feet we emerged from 
the scrub into an open slope covered by stunted bushes and small 
shrubs, and creeping plants growing ov^er loose boulders. Above us On 
the crest of the slope towered gigantic granite rocks, pyramids, spires, 
pillars, domes, and obelisks, some of them 50 feet or 60 feet in height. 
On passing out into the open, Yabba paused and cheerfully remarked, 
" Grood day, Chooreechillum." Never before had he stood on that 
summit, though the foot of the mountain was his birthplace. About 
3 o'clock on the 22nd we stood on the highest peak of Chooreechillum, 
the aneroid showing a height of 5^070 feet, or nearly 200 feet 
lower than the centre peak of Wooroonooran. All round, and below 
and above us, was a wild sea of dark clouds, involving and involved, 
driven downwards and upwards in the pitiless combat of contending 
winds. The view was bounded by a circle of 100 yards. On the 
north side of the peak we found the trees marked by Palmerston on 
2Gth October, 1886, and by G-eologist Jack on the 9th of February, 
1888. Conspicuous on Bartle Frere was the total absence of the 
dome-topped tree which covers the south end of Belienden-Kei% and 
has been discovered to be new to science, and named by Mr. Bailey 
