In three months the expedition used more than fifty pounds of soap. During those first days at the upper base the tea end of the rainy season was still a factor. After lovely mornings and noon hours the clouds would break. up in the east, great rolling cumuli mountaineering around the south tip of the mountain and to the tune of the roll of thunder, the storm came rushing over the tree tops. The wind lashed and tore at our canvas, and the rain drove through the whole camp, while the frequent "snick, snick" of nearby lightning warned us that it was still dangerous. Inherent in such tempests, When a storm was approaching we [illegible] grounded our wireless aerial. A [illegible] ungrounded aerial or receiver even ground wire attached is easily wrecked by lightning. The first day when Cardone and I were fixing the antenna, white thunder growled in the distance, the wires had been pulled up with a running line over the radio pole only a few seconds before I took the end of the lead-in in my hand to connect with the receiver. It gave me quite a severe shock, having in that short space of time picked up a heavy charge of static electricity. Cardone used to fuss all day long with his radio. When he was not dealing with the Areuna Indians -- paying them for services rendered, dealing out Aprsom salts or castor oil, measuring rice, cassave and cans of beef -- he took took them out, he changed tubes and manipulated batteries. In fact he indulged in a perfect orgy of those activities characteristic of the radio fanatic. But all our doings at the upper base were only preliminaries. Inevitably sooner or later conversations worked around to the main problems: the condition of the trail, the details of transport, the size and membership of the first party to go up, but particularly we speculated upon the geology, vegetation and the animals a bird would be discovered on the plateau, whose altitude above sea-level was still unsettled. [illegible].