50 



Description of the Purari Timber. 



Pursuing the course of the Baroi to the head of the 

 delta, one first meets the Ivo bifurcation, and, a little 

 higher up, the now much broadened stream — 300 yards 

 at least — the Hourama River, which branches off to 

 the right. One is then in the Purari proper, a 400- 

 yards wide waterway. Both banks are low, and some 12 

 miles have to be traversed before the banks rise and 



hillocks begin to show 



up 



A few miles higher the 



first rocks are seen, and steep wooded hills come down 



to the water's edge. The timber is, however, of poor 



quality — a forest of pole woods. From here on the 



country is all broken, the river winding its way through is >. unfortunately, monotonously poor 



forest species, of which No. 13, sihu, and No. 5, 

 okamu, were most conspicuous, were seen, and further 

 up, at 1,000 feet, No. 6, menaia, was met with. 

 Nowhere, however, did I see forest worth surveying. 

 Some 4 miles above So-u Creek we passed McDowall 



Islands, where the current increased to 4 miles, 

 and some difficulty was experienced in getting 

 up. Above these islands high mountains begin to show 

 up prominently, and the Purari is confined in a gully, 

 and is dappled with whirlpools The mountains on the 

 left bank are very fine, rising steeply from the water, 

 and having apparently a razor-backed top. The timber 



Another 7A 



gully alter gully. Some 30 miles up it narrows to 100 

 yards, and a large group of rocks, 15 feet high, 

 near the right bank, causes a whirlpool. The 

 current, which at the Hourama bifurcation was run- 

 ning a little over 2 miles an hour, is now running 3 

 miles. Innumerable little creeks are met with. These 

 have their sources in the hills on each side, and make 



miles brought us to the Jude village, if a couple of 

 communal houses, holding 50 males and an uncounted 

 number of females (who are kept in a sort of pandanus- 

 covered rubbish heap on the ground below one of the 

 high-perched houses), can be called a village. Here is 

 where the Aure, as it is called on the map, joins the 

 Purari. The Jude-Namainas have a different name for 



their way into the main river. The mouths are often this stream, which appears to have somewhat contracted 

 masked by the jungle, so that I do not pretend to have in Wldth and importance since it was first described and 



recorded all of them in my field notes. 



At about 35 miles the Sou Creek falls into the 

 Purari, on the left bank. One of our guides, Purai 



by name, having a garden hut here, and the natives 



being generally willing to help, I decided on my 

 way back to- attempt to cut a traverse across to the 

 Vailala. This would, I thought, save me work at the 

 head of the Vailala — a river which was next on my 

 itinerary — and I should get a good idea of the nature of 

 the forest on both watersheds. I failed, however, to get 



mapped. Our fine range of mountains now turn N.E., 

 while to the north, following the Purari, begins another 

 range of timbered hills, rising to mountains. The 

 valley of the " Aure " is well defined by the N.E, range 

 of mountains, which remain visible for a very long way 

 up the Purari. They are rendered very distinctive by 

 the white rock exposures which splash their otherwise 

 green precipitous slopes. Mr. Stanley, with whom I 

 discussed the geology of this part, is of the opinion that 

 these are limestone exposures. Altogether there were 



+i,,.^vu -.~ i .nLn,,^ ±"u li ™, .jlJL™ +i. 4. \ • seventeen canoes tied up to the bank at Jude, and these 



through, and air hough the old map shows the two rivers . . , \ , n , ., £ U \ ?? t i i 



to be less than 8 miles apart at 1 "his point, I am in- 

 clined to believe that a much wider belt of country 



divides them. The Sou Creek is navigable by canoe for 

 a mile, which is somewhat surprising, as its mouth is 



on examination proved to be all built of "here." I had 

 hoped to find some cedar in these parts, but failed to 

 do so, the boys denying all knowledge of the wood, 

 which was rather remarkable, as Mr. McDonald, on 



so masked as to be easily overlooked? From then on it the V ^ft>J f 1 *™? *? m * c l? antities 1 of ** «P ? at 

 becomes torrential, and I abandoned it, cutting a line river ^th the help of Ku-ku-ku-ku people. If it does 



X.K. 



The natives, who had come down from Jude, 



on the big bend, while quite happy and friendly, 



after two days of 



occur on the Purari, the natives make no use of it. 

 Their canoes are very ill-shapen, and some are quite 

 crooked- They do not cut them down at each end, as 



were averse to carrying loads, so alter two davs ot i ^ • j u 1 -i i , ,. i . , \T I 1 



scramble T gave up "the attempt to reach the Vailala. d ° ^ . f^ ***«*» and except for their rude fim^i 



I had traversed some miles, and crossed the Sou live 

 times. There were numerous hunting huts, yet the 

 Jude-Namainas insisted that no one ever used them, 

 and that it was five " sleeps " to the Vailala over quite 

 impossibly high mountains. They contradicted them- 

 selves somewhat flatly later, when they pointed out tome 

 a high hill, about 3,000 feet, from which they said a 



view of the Vailala was obtainable. The hill appeared 



to be two days off and N.N.E. of my position, so I 

 turned back. I mention these details as they may 

 prove of some help to others who may w T ish to traverse 

 this strip of land between the two rivers. It would 

 probably be best to hold to the winding course of the 

 So-u rather than do as I did — cut a line on a compass 

 bearing. The So-u appeared to rise in the high hills, 

 and these may prove to be the watershed. That there 

 is a way over to the Vailala I think is certain, for when 

 I later visited the country above Keke, on that river, 

 a canoe load of Ku-ku-ku-ku people came down, and 

 among them T recognized a Jude-Namaina from the 

 big bend on the Purari. His friends could speak broken 

 Vailala talk, and I learnt from him that he had crossed 



and that they have no outriggers, they are the usual 

 river type of canoe. The poorness of the canoes is 

 doubtless due to the poverty of the forests hereabouts. 

 Passing Bevan Islands and several creeks, of which 

 Hei, on the left bank, and IIou, on the right, are the 

 largest, we came to Chalmers Islands. These are 

 wooded, and six in number, and the current in between 

 them runs 4§ miles per hour, and in parts the depth of 

 water is only l\ fathoms. The mountains have receded 

 a little, and sharp wooded hills tumble down to the 

 bank. The timber is very disappointing. Passing 

 Gleeson Island — a bank of rushes — some 25 miles above 

 Jude, we reached a small wooded island some 5 miles 

 higher up. Just below this was a particularly bad 

 stretch of water rapids on the left, and a deep stream 

 on the right side, the latter running 6 miles. The cen- 

 tral channel was very narrow, and it took two hours 

 ten minutes to get up a distance of a quarter of a mile 

 to the island. The country here is a tangled, broken 

 mass of little hills, with big mountains to the north. 

 Above the island the Pite River was passed, and a suc- 

 cession of swift stretches were met with. On the left 

 the hills in places dropped precipitously 100 feet to the 



over from Jude a short time after I had been up there, ,,. a+CiT . OTnr i £>« -p lir . ,.- • if i ,1 c i T 



„„,i .1.-4 u *™i, i„-™ .;_ «„i„ — » in.. T , , Jl • ' ? ate *i and the Pmari swished through a narrow rocky- 



and that it took him six "sleeps." The Jude-Xamaina 

 probably have some excellent reason for not showing 

 strange people their private tracks. 



Of timber I saw nothing of consequent . Along the 

 mile of canoeable water-way, where the Sou follows an 

 alluvial gully, there were a few nice ilimo. This species 

 is conspicuous by its absence all along the Purari, the 

 reason being that there is no alluvial land along its 

 banks, which are steep and stony. Lower down above 

 the delta, when low-lying land does occur, the nature 

 of the country is too swampy to carry ilimo. Other rain 



faced gorge. Some 35 miles above Jude the Poh River 

 runs in on the left (right bank), and there for the first 

 time signs of human life were seen since we left Jude. 

 Gardens, perched up on the steep banks, were met with, 

 and only a few miles higher the river widens out to 850 

 yards, and is strewn with islands, some only rush 

 covered, other wooded. It is on the latter that farm 

 houses and communal houses exist. These are the 

 homes and gardens of the Bure-a Namainai. There is 

 still no sign of alluvial lands. The bottom is all stones, 

 and the islands are stony under their rushes or poor 



