IX 
ASCENDING MOUNT MACMILLAN 
121 
never hear the end of that climb, so we will go back 
to the palms again. Lycopodiums were trailing along 
the ground, and ferns and mosses everywhere, with 
more bright-coloured fungi. 
Here and there through the trees we caught a 
glimpse of the world below us, but we had to hurry on. 
As we came nearer to the top, thick clouds kept 
passing over us and left us unpleasantly moist, and at 
one rather lengthy halt we got covered with leeches, so 
we hurried on. It grew colder now and the road 
rougher ; in front of us was a deep chasm between two 
great boulders of rock, and the only crossing over it 
was by a bridge of matted roots. Here we went on 
all fours. Then we found a porcupine, and the native 
women, who look upon these animals as a great 
delicacy, were some time in lifting it from the ground, 
it clung so tightly with its strong claws. They killed 
it by hitting it under the throat. On we went, slipping 
down rocks and dropping from one to the other, over 
most uncomfortably deep and black-looking chasms. 
In some places it seemed impossible to get 
down, but at last we reached our final goal, the edge 
of a huge rock, and the only lookout from the top of 
this mountain. Away below us lay the valley and 
coast - line of the Bloomfield. Thick clouds kept 
passing over us, but now and then through the sunshine 
we had an uninterrupted sight of perhaps one of the 
finest views in all Queensland. We looked down on 
the valley 4000 feet below. We had been five hours 
on the way and were quite ready for our “ billy tea ” 
(which took a long time to boil at this altitude) 
and our turkey sandwiches, which never tasted better. 
The gins cooked their porcupine, which smelt very 
gamey in the ashes. I made my sketch as best I 
could through cloud and sunshine. 
