99 



500 feet above the sea. 



The 



The trees of the beach forests appear to bear more Embi village — some 

 epiphytes than those of the rain forests. 1 think this limber between the Ere Eiver and Embi village is 

 may be illusory. The aerial gardens are so much lower, decidedly better, but it was not until I went down 

 the trunks being shorter, that the wealth of ferns, towards Urio that I found timber worth surveying, 

 orchids and climbers strikes the eye without the tra- On the journey over this shoulder of the Ilydrographer's 

 veller having to crane his neck. This type of forest Range some interesting species were met with — 

 will always prove of use to the local native population 

 and to the white planter, but where saw-milling on 

 a larger scale is the method to be used, it is not of 

 commercial imnortance. 



The Hydbographer's Range. 



Leaving the coast at Buna, I again penetrated in- 

 land, this time making for the Ilydrographer's Range. 

 The country passed through was similar to that which 

 I have already described, ll is known to most under 

 the name of the Dobodura Plains. All this count ly 

 was, at one time, a dipteroearp forest. From the 

 fringes of forest still left, it was of better average 

 quality than that described near Sopuia. The diptero- 

 carp, No. 136 — karawa (.1 nisopfera polyandrd) — here 



grows larger and occurs more plentifully to the acre. 



No. 5 — okamu — is still very prominent, but in numbers, 



and above all in volume, it is far behind karawa. No- 

 where did 1 find an area of fores I larjje enough to 



warrant a detailed survey. Leaving the rich soil of 

 the Dobodura Plains, 1 followed tlie course of tlie 



KmbogU — ;i river that rises in the Hydrograplier's 

 Kane;e, and, flowing north-east, empties into the sei 



north of Oro Bay, Tin's river soon becomes torren- 

 tial, and the natives' road is along; its course. 



No. 220, Siri.— -A large tree, yielding a close grained 



timber. 



No. 221, Lada. — A tree very tall like the No. 151 of 



the plains already referred to. 



No. 224.— Is a little tree (Garciniaassuga), with a 



very conspicuous greengage-like fruit. 



No. 225, Kesa (Cyathocalyx poly ear pum) . — Another 



small tree of the third story, much in de- 

 mand for canoe seats and such like light 

 wood. The wood has a pretty quarter 



gram. 



No. 220, 



f 



A verv large 



One 



passes through a steep, rocky, narrow gorge, and, 

 crossing and re-crossing the river eight limes, finally 

 comes to a well-defined junction between which, on a 

 sharp ridge, stands the village of I'ernambata. All 

 up the sides of the rapidly-rising mountains are new 

 and old farm lands. The latter are covered with weed 

 re-growth. No virgin forest of any extent is to be 



sevw. Tlie mountain-climbing bamboo, festooning a 



large bomb ax nuihihfii r-u m , gives a mixed monsoonal 



forest effect to a small patch of rain forest above the 

 village. Leaving Pernambata, 1 climbed Up through 

 the farm lands, and once above them, and above the 

 precipitous course of the O pi Creek, the left branch of 

 the EmbogU, I found some nice stands of timber. The 

 country appears to be volcanic, and wherever the slope 

 13 nor too sleep, high forest has established itself, 



Between 1,000 and 2,000 feet, No. 218— kiiii of the 



Pernambata people (Querent jungh uhnii) — occurs. 

 This tree, in spite of its botanical name, is more akin 

 to the true oak or the beech than to ihe chestnut. II 



tree, with a striking orange red papery 

 bark. It has alternate leaves, leaves oi 

 1.5 inch petioles, and these also bear a 

 deciduous ligule. The wood has a good 

 colour, and has a handsomely-figured 



quarter grain. This is a rain forest 

 species which finds its way up to the foot- 

 hills a little way. I had met it several 

 times before, but had not found it in 



flower, 

 Xo. 227, Jaraka (Achradotypus sp.). — A small sapo- 



tacious 



tree 



with 



veloped caulitlory. 



remarkably 

 1 1 is of 



de- 



iittl 



e 



Xo 



s 



No. 2 k J9, 



interest from a forestry stand-point; 

 a rather rare second-story tree; to 

 the botanical systematist it should prove 

 interesting, while to the native it has a 

 very particular interest, being one of, if 

 not actually, the most important of the 

 sorcerer's trees. 



228 am! 117, Ilobaba (Quercus pseudo — 



moucca). — At 2,000 feet occurs the true 



oak, No. 228, Hobaba, which is identical 

 with the one I found at about the same 

 height above Galley Reach, viz., No. 117. 



Is a medium tree whose timber 



Painga. 



to 



is easy to recognize 



by its somewhal grooved stem, 

 which, like an European lime tree, is often surrounded 



with a petticoat of sucker shoots by its narrow very 



pointed haves, and by itfl beech masi-like fruit. li 

 does not reach its bet development in the liydro- 

 grapher's Range, but is typical enough. It grows in 



pure stands of small area and is remarkable for having 



little or no soil cover below it. Tins soecies marks the 



end of the rain forest proper, and the beginning of 



rhe foothill forests. In the Ilydrographer's Range, 

 owing to the extraordinarily broken nature of the 



is without much value, but which yields a 

 resin that is worth attention. The natives 

 use it as they do the resin of the diptero- 



and other snecies to make 



carps 



lamp 



species to 

 black, with which they do their tatooing. 



Forests around Embi Lake. 

 Below Embi village there are three lakes, which lie? 



at the foot of the hills. 



The one to the west is the 



largest 



'l'\ miles lout? 



and contains a fin 



from where Embi Creek 

 enters it, to where it flows out- 

 wooded island. This lake is called Embi. The central 



one is smaller, and the eastern cue r/maller still. 



topography, the limit is nor well marked. One moment ^ n drain into the Emboli, and the creeks to do this 



you are in foothill forest, and the next you arc among 

 the oka m us. lalasris and devorug of the rain forests* 



lalagis 



From a scenic point of view, these foothills of the 

 Ilydrographer's Range, up to 2,000. feet, are exceed- 

 ingly beautiful. From the village of Aim mi a view over 

 the whole plain to the Mambare River spreads out. 

 Here one gets a better id«"i of the very lai 



of irrass-land, particularly in the month of August, 



when the natives are burning these areas for wallaby. 



area 



have to turn very sharply eastwards The Ernbi Creek 

 IS not more than a mile frcm the Sambogi when it 

 leaves Embi Lake, yet the topography is such that it. 

 turns away from what must, at one time, have been 

 its natural outlet to the sea, and, making; a wide de- 

 tour, enters the Embogu several miles to the east. The 



presence of these lakes, and the extraordinary topo- 

 graphy of the country, all point to a great geological 

 noli ival at some not verv remote period. The Ere Valley 



Around Atami, and between that village and Andaki, al "° f< an instance of a great geological change. Embi 



there are some nice patches of ram for . And so one ri * n " s c l 1,ite close to the Ern R iv < r, but the latter 



descends to the eastern branch of the Sambogi he * I- flows down in a westerly and north-westerly direction 



Quarters, known here as the Ere. and climbs up to to become the Bambogi, when it turns practically due 



