54 



RAINFALL AT INDIVIDUAL STATIONS IN KAISER WILHELM'S LAND (ACCORDING TO HANS MEYER, "THE 



GERMAN COLONIAL KINGDOM.") 



100 points = 1 inch. 



• 



Station. 



8.1*1. 



E. long. 



Jan. 



Feb. 



Mar. 



April. 



May. 



June. 

 Pts. 



July. 

 Pts. 



Aug. 



Sept. 

 Pts. 



Oct. 



Nov. 



Dec. 



Year. 







Pts. 



Pts. 



Pts. 



, — — 



Pts. 



Pts. 



Pts. 



Pts. 



Pts . 



Pts. 



Pts. 



Berlinhafen 



3° 9' 



142° 31' 



1 ,03 1 



1,165 



1,244 



768 



752 



614 



642 



685 



689 



551 



823 



1,323 



10,287 



Ranumunde 



4° 3' 



144° 35' 



921 



429 



953 480 



1,055 



386 



965 



201 



638 



63 



417 



1,177 



7,685 



Potsdamhafen 



4° 16' 



144° 57' 



894 



437 



780 



646 



772 



228 



240 



181 



252 



512 



740 



882 



6,563 



HatzfeldthalVn 



4° 24' 



145° 14' 



1,606 



1,376 



1,004 



1,461 



492 



311 



705 



354 



468 



626 



1,209 



1,177 



10,791 



Ranu iStation 



5° 6' 



144° 37' 



2,346 



984 



3,512 



2,610 



1,965 



1,035 



937 



1,299 



3,173 



504 



3,460 



882 



22,707 



Friedrch Wilhelmhafen 



5° 12' 



145° 50' 



1,063 



1,173 



1,173 



1,335 



1,110 



516 



409 



453 



516 



850 1 



1,201 



1,169 



10,858 



Jomba 



5° 15' 



145° 49' 



1,133 



1,574 



1,154 



1,091 



1,295 



858 



409 



366 



752 



768 



1,043 



1,240 



11,483 



Maraga 



5° 21' 



145° 46' 



2,197 



2,921 



2,425 



2,508 



2,004 



1,291 



2,236 



1,016 



1,866 



1,598 



3,138 



2,618 



25,818 



Erimahafen 



5° 25' 



145° 45' 



1,591 



1,508 



1,693 



1,437 



1,031 



417 



468 



354 



314 



654 



1,339 



1,354 



12,160 



Stephansort 



5° 27' 



145° 46' 



1,760 



1,591 



1,756 



1,220 



S62 



402 



283 



272 



520 



618 



1,276 



1,268 



11,828 



Konstantinhafen 



5° 29' 



145° 51' 



1,650 



1,504 



1,610 



1,028 



661 



425 



406 



252 



398 



673 



1,043 



1,382 



11,032 



Finschhafen 



6° 34' 



147° 52' 



280 



295 



457 



1,016 



1,280 



1.693 



1,874 



1,929 



1,287 



1,516 



929 



465 



13,021 



Sattelberg 



6° 30' 



147° 48' 



445 



402 



823 



1,016 



1,634 



2,445 



2,153 



2,390 



1,886 



1,663 



909 



756 



16,512 



Simbing 



6° 35' 



147° 51' 



356 



299 



650 



1,083 



2,114 



2,590 



2,291 



2,303 



2,047 



1 ,528 



1,319 



665 



17,247 



Tami Islands 



6° 46' 



147° 56' 



1,146 



760 



1,169 



1,787 



3,240 



3,083 



3,110 



2,622 



2,913 



2,342 



1,728 



1,417 



25,317 



Cape Gerhards (Deinzer- 



6° 45' 



147° 31' 



1,016 



093 



1,421 1,331 



2,122 



2,716 



2,598 



2,339 



1,953 



2,374 



1,098 



1 988 



20,649 



hohe) 



■ 



■ 











• 





■ 











■ 





edges of the spurs and ridges. And Eucalyptus, Nau- their way into purely rain forest formations, e.g., the 



diniana F. v. M., too, which, like E. rostra ta, lias ac- 

 quired the art of growing in land inundated annually, 

 thrives around the coast of New Britain, ousting or 

 dominating the rain forest proper. Steep country seems 

 the only serious ohstacle to the growth of high timber 

 at moderate elevations, and this is an ohstacle that can- 

 not he overcome, so that the broken precipitous foot- 

 hills are never likely to be clothed with fine timber. 

 The low lands, with their rain-forest conditions, and the 

 mountains with their coniferous belts, offer a fine field 

 for the forester, so that he will have much to do with- 

 out troubling about the foothill country. 



2. FOREST REGIONS. 



There is no forest boundary between Papua and the 

 Mandated Territory, and the forest regions fall into 



the same fairly well defined belts. On page 4, the 

 limits of these belts are defined, and, with such dif- 

 ferences as will now be explained, the same forest 

 regions may be said to occur on the north side of the 

 main dividing ranges, which form the backbone of the 

 island of New Guinea, and on the larger islands, which 



terre range. 



stands of eucalyptus trees 'in both north and south coasts 

 of New Britain. Here the nature of the belt is rather 

 hard to define. 



A very dry belt occurs between Cape Crettin and 



Astrolabe Bay, on the north-east coast of the mainland. 



Here the rainfall is so low that the conditions are 



frankly xerophilous, and there is an absence of any tall 



tree vegetation except in the gullies of the watercourses 



which drain the steep watershed formed by the Finis- 

 Step over step of grass lands follow the 



stratified and terraced limestone formation until an 

 altitude is reached where the precipitation is sufficient 

 to enable trees to grow and a poor pole wood precari- 

 ously fastened to the almost precipitous slopes clothes 

 the midmountain range. Further up the moss forest 

 doubtless establishes itself in any sufficiently easy 

 gradient, but for the most part the Finisterres are so 

 abrupt that rock-faced precipices crown their heights. 

 These grass areas of the Rye coast, as the region is 

 called, are certainly natural, and differ entirely from 

 the well watered but artificially formed grass land of 

 the Markham and Ramu valleys, which I shall describe 



together make up the group known as the Bismarck , . m jy . i i ,-. J \ T m .-i . 



A 1-. i t> • mi +i * , i i , * l i later, 1 he Rye coast lacks the sclerophilous species that 



Archipelago. Bougainville, the most northerly island 

 of the Solomon group, I did not explore; but from the 

 coast it appeared to carry much the same type of vege- 

 tation as the islands of New Ireland and Lavongai 

 ( Xew Hanover). As in Papua, the regions are defined 



by climate and altitude. 



question of rainfall more than any other factor that 



decides the nature of the vegetation. Here and there 



On the low levels, it is 



a 



the main dry belt of Papua possesses. There are none 

 of the Eucalyptus genus to help clothe the grass lands. 

 Sandalwood also is absent. A shrubby Albizzia and 

 our old friends Olerondendron sp. occur here and there. 

 To guard their crops against the desiccating winds, the 

 natives erect grass fences on the windward sides of their 

 gardens. The coco-nut palm makes no show at all, 

 though the natives assiduously try to grow it in every 



the geological formation or general soil conditions are , 1 . b 7 ., 1 ., • J / . & T . -,. , \ 



, & p , , y ., . .-, . . sheltered cove; it only attains a lew inches m diameter 



such as to make heavy vegetation impossible, in spite 



and yields little nuts of poor quality. For fuel and 



of an ample rainfall. Good examples of this type of u , ,• -, , T ,• i ,-i i v- 



1 . Al , . . r i-i • i house construction poles, the natives rely on the edaphic 



country occur in the volcanic pumices which, in places, 

 are extensive enough to cause islands of grass in the 



formations in the gullies, and in certain cases obtain 

 their canoe logs from driftwood, washed up in the 



rain forest belts. Generally speaking, the lower lying north _ west monsoon . 

 lands are made up ot soils which are quite rich enough 



in plant foods to carry heavy forest growth, and it is Whether the eucalypts of the Port Moresby dry belt, 



purely a question of water supply as to whether the type viz., Euc. papuana, Eur. clavegera, Euc. alba, would 



of vegetation is hydrophyllous, sclerophyllous, or xero- grow along the Rye coast is an interesting question. 1 



phyllous. On the coast also occur areas of swamp land think they would, and they could form an important 



subject to tidal flooding and there are found halophyl- addition to this treeless belt. As stated on page 2, I 

 lous formations, i.e., mangrove swamps. 



As in the valley of the Fly River, in Papua, large eastern side of the dividing range at the Papuan end 



areas occur in the Mandated Territory which are under of New Guinea, and in the Mandated Territory their 



fresh water for most of the year. The lower half of absence is again remarkable. The New Britain euca- 



the Ramu, the greater part of the Sepik Valley, and iyptus is another species altogether, Euc. Naudiniana, 



did not find these dry country eucalypts on the north- 



other low-lying river formations, are examples. 



In 



and is not a dry country tree. - It may have found its 



them swamp grasses predominate, and there is little tree way south from the Philippines, but it certainly has not 

 vegetation. •• Again, sclerophyllous species often thrust come north-west from Australia. - ■> ■ 



