high on the opposite side of the gorge I noticed a seepage-wet rock- face on which I thought Impatiens ought to grow, if it had crossed to Australia from New Guinea and earlier collectors had missed it. Then our pace slowed, and looking ahead I saw the rails curve over the edge and drop out of sight. I took a glance at George. He was looking ahead, too, and saying nothing. The engineers were discussing voltages, or Y-circuits, or something. By this time we were no longer hooked over the stairs. We were sitting flat, and I had got my feet braced for a quick jump in case the 1-inch cable should part. That was no good, of course. We would shoot to the bottom in Buck Rogers fashion if that wire gave. Leaning over in front of George I tried to get a photo of the falls, then in full sight, but looking through an eye-level view vinder took me too far from the trolley. I had settled down to enjoy the view by the time we neared the bottom of the haulage way, but not the bottom of the gorge. That was a hundred feet or so below and the rails cut off short, without any backstop. The winchman could not see us, but he must have had his gable marked, for we stopped exactly opposite the end of a zigzag path which led down another little way to the mouth of a twelve-foot tunnel, and about ten feet from the end of the rails. The rest was just an ordinary bat hunt, with the addition or dis- advantage, of electric lights. The tunnel had a 700 foot vertical drop from the top of the falls but sloped on an easy gradient for walking. We walked between another set of trolley rails, with a 3 foot water flue on one side and a 3½ foot flue on the other, George with our only gun and the rest of us with many-forked sticks with which to swat bats. The roof of the tunnel dri e d. A row of electric lights blazed like a string of bright beads disappearing in dim distance up the slope. The bats were there, but not many of them. They were fast on the wing and had plenty of room to dodge. And when they came close they were t hard to see in the glare of the lights. George fired a few shots and d got one. Dropping behind the other men, I noticed that when all was quiet the bats soon came to rest in dark crevices. As a rule they were out of reach of my short stick, but I got one too. The still air of the tunnel was sultry and I was sopping wet with sweat when I reached the bottom of a 50 foot shaft and climbed a ladder el to fresh but equally hot air at the head of the main waterfall. Back at the winch station, quarter of a mile away, I found George and Laurie lounging in the shade. Vautin had got his own gun and gone down the skip again, with another engineer as companion. They brought back two bats. Net result, two specimens of Scoteinis sp. and two of Rhinolophus sp., which probably represented the species population of the tunnel. At least, we hope so. Daily output capacity of the Barron hydro plant is 3800 kw. The do difference between that and demand of 6000 kw. is supplied by diesel plants in various parts of the area served by the Board. A great in- crease in power could be got from the falls, but the original planners showed lack of foresight, and alterations to the existing plant would est too much. The Cairns area is short of electricity, as it is of p no water, and this in a mountainous country with the highest rainfall in Australia. Preliminary work is in progress on a scheme for harness- ing, or generating power from, the great Tully falls, about 100 miles from Cairns. Planned output there, 40 to 50 thousand kw per day.