snake bags, and butterfly net. I coiled the snake and lashed it into its coils finally slinging it by a strong over my back. At first the twitching and wrig- gling of the snake felt unpleasant but later it began to get itself entangled with the vines and trees. At last, the snake looped around a branch, my gun and haversack twisted in with some vine and the spikes of lawyer cane gripped the butterfly net and my trousers. I simply unloaded the whole lot except the trousers and cursed them all thoroughly. That seemed to bring some sense of order into them and I reached camp at last, pretty sick of snakes. Moreton informed me very volubly that it was a man snake and there must be a woman snake, with a wider head, somewhere near, but I decided to have lunch before doing any cherchez la femme stuff. The mountain climbers arrived back very weary but in good spirits and it is decided that we shall do the summit camp in relays, there being no water on top, or within reach, at all. The final plans for these camps are not yet made and I still have time to and get the woman snake before moving to more lofty things. Wednesday, 30 June 1948. Two trips over to the Claudie Gorge today, morning and afternoon, failed completely to disclose any woman snake but did disclose the beauties of the gorge to me more fully. I am fond of scrambling around on rocks and I had my fill there. George arrived back from Tozer summit about 3 this afternoon and has found a spring up there, which answers our water problem. Len is going up tomorrow with his boy and some supplies and Ven and Don will up the following day. I plan two nights and three days, including my travelling up and down for the duration of my trip but do not know just when I shall make the climb nor whom I shall take with me as I have to stand by for a trip out to Portland Roads to get our stuff off the Wandana and up to the Iron Range base. A considerable portion will have to be transported up here as we are short of several things and still have at least two and a half weeks to go before returning to Iron Range to make preparations for our shipment of stuff our and our own move to Wenlock, the Archer River and Coen. The means of my reaching Portland Roads also are very uncertain; we expect that a truck will be coming through from Wenlock and will carry me there and back as there is sure to be something on the ship for the men at Wenlock. The Wandana was due in Cairns today and it is a two day trip to P.R. so we hope the truck will pass through tomorrow. However it means that I must stay close to camp until the thing does arrive. I shall be able to pick up at our base the mail which came in this afternoon and shall also be able to take mail out for transmission by the plane a week from tomorrow. We shall be able, I hope, to get mail our from Brown's Creek, when we get there, in the same way but the Wenlock men receive their mail overland from Coen once every two weeks or do not trouble about meeting the plane. While at Portland Roads or at our base I hope to be able to make final ar- rangements for our travel to Brown's and our return so shall have things pretty well in hand, but it is quite impossible to say when I shall have my turn on the summit. We have decided that there will be no single-men camps, not that I would care very much to stay up there for three days alone, but I do not know who will be my companion there. Weather continues to be spotty though the mornings are usually bright and clear. In the afternoon and night we are subject to short heavy storms of rain and the wind blows with considerable force and gusto. It is a good camp though and we are as comfortable as can be expected.