52 



SECTION B. 



FORESTS OF THE TERRITORY OF NEW GUINEA 



1. GENERAL. 



The Territory of New Guinea, embracing as it does 

 91,000 square miles, is of, relatively speaking, large 

 urea, and as 21,000 square miles of this consists of 

 islands, it extends over a wide tract of sea. The dis- 



frustrated in my attempts to cross it, so I have a 

 respect for the Eamu. It flows into the sea south of, 



and only 12 miles from, the Sepik. 



The Markham is 



river, which is also swift and not very 



another large 



dee]). It rises back to back with the Ramu, and flows 

 into the Huon Gulf, near the station of Lae. No 



ranees beween its various parts wiH be clear when it ^ lfl rim ^ for ^ mouutains elsewhere 



is realized that its most northern island — 8ae — is just 



come down too close to the sea, and nowhere is there 



south of the Equator and its southern boundary is the L ^ ?aU Hk ^ Ramu _ Marlduim Valley 



parallel of 8 deg. south latitude, which is the northern J * 



boundary of Papua. East it extends to 159 deg. east ^rrential 



longitude — the island of Kukumanu in the Tasman 

 group, while its western boundary is Dutch New Guinea 

 144 deg. east longitude. 



The largest area, 70,000 square miles, forms the 



or the iSepik Plain. Numerous small short rivers of 



or semi-torrential type are encountered in 

 all the islands, and some of them carry large volumes 

 of water, and form serious obstacles to the traveller 

 after rain has swollen them. 



Mr. E. R. Stanley has described the geology of the 



north-east third of the island of New Guinea proper. Territory, < tf > and has shown that early limestones occur 



The remainder is made up of New Britain, the largest 

 island, 13,000 square miles, with Kabaul, the capital, 

 at its north-eastern end; New Ireland, 3,000 square 



southern end 



Lavongai, 



miles, a long narrow 



a small, compact 

 island of 600 square miles, and which used to be called 

 New Hanover; the Admiralty Islands, a rather far- 

 away group. All these comprise the Bismarck Archi- 

 elago ; then come Bougainville and Buka — these are 



throughout the Territory. I found them at 13,400 feet 

 on a peak of Sarawaket. In other respects, the geology 

 of the main island differs very little, if at all, from 



strip with a swelling at the that of Papua. Young limestones are the predominant 



• 1*1 * 



which is 



feature of the rest of the Territory, though volcanic 

 agglomerates rather mask the fundamental formation 

 all round the lower altitudes of New Britain and New 

 Ireland. This late limestone goes right up to the top of 

 rhe Bainings, and the elevated Lailet area in New Ire- 



olomon Islands, and are north of the British Solomons, land is also the same series. Coraline limestone occurs 



which are administered by the Colonial Office. 



all round the coast lines of the Territory, and in many 



Except for the two threat valleys in the main island, P ] f c es "Praised beds of this formation are to he found 



where plain conditions are met with, the whole Territory * lon « wa 7 in . lan(L /W ° ne . who has travelled up the 



r rpi le streams and rivers of the Territory must have remarked 



t4 



may be written down as very mountainous. 

 highest mountains are to be found in New Guine 

 proper, where they rise to 15,416 feet. As in Papua, 

 they trend north-east south-west, and though not con- 

 tinuous with the Owen Stanley Kange, and broken 

 again and again between Mount Edward and the Dutch 

 border, they form a similar backbone. The Bismarck 

 and Finnisterre ranges are, according to Mr. E. Stanley, 

 virgations which are eventually lost in the Gazelle 



Peninsula. 



New Britain boasts very mountainous country, and 



one of its volcanoes, " The Father/' has a peak 7,546 

 feet high. The 4 mountains of the southern end of Xew 

 Ireland rise to 7,000 feet. Xone of the other islands 



possesses high mountains, yet all are exceedingly broken 



and very difficult to explore. 



The two largest rivers of the Territory are the Sepik 

 and the Ramu. The former is over 700 miles long, and 

 is navigable for small craft drawing up to 10 feet of 

 water for a distance of 330 miles. Some idea of the 



volume of the waters of this vast river may be gathered 

 from the fact that in the north-west monsoon the 

 natives of the Island Kadowar, which is 25 miles out 

 to sea, draw up the Sepik water for drinking purposes. 

 The muddy flow extends for miles, and only a narrow 



on the enormous quantites of metamorphic roc v s that 

 have been washed down from inland. The sof er sedi- 

 mentary rocks have for the most part been washed away, 

 and old limestone and all the schists, gneisses, granites, 

 and quartz litter the beds of the rivers. The late 

 limestones would seem to have covered up these hard 

 rocks. The backbone of the main island must for the 

 most part be a continuance of the Owen Stanley series, 

 for the stones of the rivers that have birth in that 

 great central range are of the same character. 



One wonders, however, what is the white rock ex- 

 posed on the tops of the Bismarck Range — a rock which 

 shone out so well in the morning sun when I was 

 camped on the Middle Ramu that it might have been 

 mistaken for snow. Similar white rock exposures were 

 very conspicuous on the high range north of my highest 

 camp on the Purari, and I came to the conclusion then 

 that they were some form of limestone. 



All over the Territory eruptive rocks are very much 

 in evidence, and volcanic mud, scoria, and grey lava 

 occur everywhere in the neighbourhood of active or 

 dormant volcanoes, and large masses of volcanic 

 agglomerates are a most striking feature in certain of 

 the streams and rivers. In the water-ways of the Finis- 

 terre Range are masses of basalt, and this is the rock 



strip of blue sea separates it from the yellow waters used by an earl race to make t]le curioug ]eg and 

 of the Eamu The Ramu is not such a great river, nor lliertlirs; to what e these interesting and orna- 



is it navigable in the same way. It has many rapids, mouin ] Tmlverizera wato nut rpmn?™- q m^m™ 



and altogether is an entirely different type of water- 

 way, being swifter and shallower. It is over 350 miles 

 long, so is by no means a small river. I was repeatedly 



mental pulverizers were put remains a mystery. 



(a) Report on Geology and Natural Resources, 

 the League of Xations on the administration of 



Government Printer, Victoria, Australia. 



B. It. Stanley, in the Report to 

 New Guinea, July 2 L -July 22. 



