intense delight and amazement of the others. They eat flesh nearly raw.
A pig is put on the fire until the hair is well singed off; then division
is made, then re-divided, and eaten. They take a piece between the
teeth, hold with one hand, and with a bamboo knife cut close to the
mouth. A bird is turned on the fire a few times, then cut up and eaten.

_August_ 1_st_.--Left this morning to look for a track. We passed
through a fine large village about one mile from here, and were joined by
sixty men, all armed with spears and clubs, and faces painted. They
accompanied us for about four miles, and then turned away to the south.
We continued on the ridge for some miles further, until we could see that
all round were great inaccessible mountains with bare faces. It begins
with the Astrolabe, extending west until Vetura is reached, and then away
east by south until the centre of the range is reached. In some places
it has a perpendicular rock face of many hundred feet; in other places it
is broken rock with bush growth, and only at very long distances can
tracks be found, and even then it is difficult to get up. We descended
to the river, a large one, flowing west, through great rocks, often lost,
sometimes only pools appearing here and there until, some distance down,
and when eight hundred feet above sea-level, it comes out a fine and
flowing river. We had a good bath, and, of course, the inevitable
_kuku_, and then skirted the side of the ridge, passing close by and
under great rocks and overhanging cliffs, and up a most extraordinary
steep path into splendid sugar-cane and taro plantations. Weary, we sat
down and ate sugar-cane under the shade of a great rock. This West
Indian "long breakfast" goes well when thirsty and hungry. The natives
who accompanied us, having caught a large rat and frog, turned them on
the fire and ate them.

A truly wonderful country! What terrible convulsions of nature there
must have been here ere these great boulders were displaced and rolled
about like mere pebbles! The villages are so built that they are
accessible only on two sides by very narrow tracks. We saw no game of
any kind, yet the cassowary must abound somewhere near, as every one of
the natives wears great head-dresses and neck-ruffs made from the
feathers. Our highest ascent to-day was to 2360 feet above the
sea-level; we call it Mount Bellamy; it stands out alone, and from it we
saw the Astrolabe, Vetura, and M