Geology Reference
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vegetation, absolutely impenetrable except along the six inch
paths which the natives use. These are fairly good underfoot
but needlessly long, passing round every obstruction and
winding away from the proper direction, in fact following the
footsteps of the first man who found his way through the bush
from one point to another. There is a large traffic along these
narrow paths - boys carrying monkey nuts to the coast. One
gets very weary going through this vegetable prison day after
day.
The camp itself is a great success. There are two big store
houses, one house for Barton, another for a hospital, and two
living houses, kitchen, garden by the river, and so on. For
meals we have a sort of trellis-work summer house built on
a little hill which commands a view of the whole camp and
away out of the valley mouth, over the plateau beyond and
to the precipitous heights on the horizon.
The garden he mentions was not ornamental but a way of
supplementing their rather restricted diet, by growing their own
vegetables.
Struck by the beauty and wonder of it all he wrote to Bob next
day:
The stars here are wonderfully impressive. The Milky Way
stretches across the heavens and gives one an unbelievable
feeling of awe. Last night looking out of the door of my hut I
had an indescribable emotion of nervousness - not of any-
thing tangible, but of the overpowering majesty of the hills and
of the stars and the wind playing infinite chords on the strings
of the forest, and the calls of animals sometimes sharp and
shrill in a death struggle, sometimes the roar which is born
of a full stomach. I felt somehow what a fearful meaningless
tragedy the whole Universe appeared to be. Have you yet
seen Dr. Russell Wallace's newest book 'The World of Life'?
It is good while it remains scientific but philosophically and
imaginatively it is insanely absurd - the sort of book which
ministers will rave over - excusing God's ways to Man and
 
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