NARRATIVE OE THE CRUISE. 
785 
the utmost attempt to scale the mountains as far as possible, and the baggage had there- 
fore been reduced to a minimum, it not being expected that suffering from cold would be 
experienced. The thermometer showed, at about half an hour before sunset, 75° F., about 
an hour later, 68°'5, at midnight 63°‘0, at daybreak 60 o, 5, and in about half an hour after 
daybreak it rose to 61° ’5. The main stream of the valley running past the huts had a 
temperature at daybreak of 65°‘0, having retained throughout the night the heat of the 
former day, which the air had so rapidly lost. The effect of the stream on the climate 
here, is thus just the opposite of that of the streams of such an island as Tristan da Cunha. 
From this camp, the way led over several steep minor ridges in the head of the valley, 
and then up to an elevation of 3000 feet, which was reached on one of the extremely 
narrow ridges, characteristic of Tahiti, situated just to the west of the “ Diadem.” From 
the ridge, a descent was made into the Punaru Valley by the aid of ropes fastened to the 
trees. The precipitous side of the valley which was thus descended, was covered at this 
elevation, from about' 3000 to 2000 feet altitude, with a dense vegetation, composed 
almost entirely of ferns. A Tree Fern (Alsophila tahitiensis) formed a sort of forest 
almost to the exclusion of other trees, and with this were associated huge clumps of the 
Giant Fern (Angiopteris evecta ) and masses of the Birds-nest Fern ( Asplenium nidus). 
With these grew a trailing Screw Pine and a Draccena, but the three ferns together 
formed a remarkably large proportion of the entire vegetation. 1 
The second camp was made at an elevation of about 1800 feet, at a native hut in the 
upper part of Punaru Valley. The natives have not forgotten their religion since the 
time of Darwin’s visit ; 2 the guides said their prayers every evening before sleeping, 
even when huddled together out of the rain, all repeating the words together, and the 
native family at the hut did the same. The temperature at the hut sank at daybreak 
to 59° F. Much suffering from cold was experienced in the night, and still more from 
mosquitos. An okl piece of canvas was lent to the party to lay on the ground to sleep 
on, but was used as a coverlet for warmth. 
In the morning the attempt was made to cross over a high ridge at the head of 
Punaru Valley, and so to reach the proposed destination, the Papeno Valley, but the 
attempt failed, for it was found after toiling up to an elevation of about 3000 feet that 
the guides did not know the way at all. One of them had been over the pass many 
years before, but all he seemed to know was, that he had been up a stream, so the day 
was spent in wading through pools and clambering over slippery boulders in its bed, 
creeping along under the overhanging branches. Attempts were made time after time 
in various impracticable places, and at last a hurried descent was made in the evening 
into the valley, and a camp had to be prepared almost entirely in the dark, and in heavy 
rain, at a height of 2500 feet. 
1 On the significance of this, see A. R. Wallace, Tropical Nature, p. 269, 1878. 
2 0. Darwin, Journal of Researches during the Voyage of H.M.S. “Beagle,” p. 411, ed. 1879. 
