61 



Hunst 



range. The people here seem to he of 



more mountain type, and the hill has been cultivated in 



a forests proves it indubitably — that great droughts occur 



at somewhat long intervals. 



It may be that some great 



a similar manner to what one sees in the real moun- fire wiped the greater part of the low land forests out, 

 tains ot .fapua and New Guinea. There is no timber and that what we see to-day is merely the young re- 



left, and they conduct their tree burials 



Mango 



on scaffolds growth. Here and there patches of good forests occur, 



They have planted fruit trees but they are of relatively small area and are quite ac- 



ana coco-nuts and appear to be a vigorous people, countable in the fire theory for such islands of saved 



-botii men and women go naked. f ores t are only natural. These show whet type of 



Further up the river one finds the same vast plain f 1 orest 7 as ^°™« here before the fire or other cata ~ 



of swamp, and at 290 miles after visiting a village I dySm destT0 J ed lL 



turned back. Transport is the great difficulty in the Here is the survey of a characteristic patch of such 



region and it would, I think, be necessary to penetrate forest taken in the valley of the Powell River, close 



to the mam range some 300 miles further up, or up to where the eucalyptus forest occurred. First, I 



one of the large tributaries to the hills before the forest should say that while rainfall figures were not collected 



conditions replace swamp. The nature of these swamp before the Government station was established two 



hinds differs entirely from these of the middle Eamu. years ago, a full year's data are available. These cover 



There the vegetation is arboreal if stunted; at the worst September, 1923-August, 1924, and total 115.41 inches, 



you get a forest of Pandanus. Here 



which seems a low annual rainfall for this vegetation 



grass swamp. The natives make the blades of their canoe and certainly any diminution of this fall in a drought 



paddles with a fish tail instead of tapering them to year, 



for instance, would 



be followed by 



grave fire 



Rain Forests of the Powell River, New Britain 



Sample area, 32 acres parallel with river. 



Though at 



a point. With this tool they can both paddle in clear dangers, especially in a country whose people use fire 

 water and pole through this floating grass. Tn the dry quite indiscriminately, 

 season some areas become dry enough to offer a pre- 

 carious foothold, but it is only the crust that is dry, 

 and if you are not careful you will flounder waist deep 

 in mud when trying to cross a patch. The illusion of 

 strong ground is heightened by the presence of little 

 shrubs and young saplings that have sprung up since 

 the previous rains. Large areas of the crust become 

 detached in the lagoons and back waters, and come float- 

 ing down the main stream looking like solid islands 

 with their bushes, and now and again a trunk of a 

 tree or some other heavy object in the middle. I was 

 not there during the season when the largest of these 

 islands were coming down, but in July I measured one 

 which was 42 yards long and about 20 yards wide and 

 carried a firm little sapling of Sarcocephalus with a 

 cloak of white bracted Mussaenda on it. 

 times they floated by with an appearance of some mass 

 and cohesion, yet none had the solid look of the float- 

 ing islands of Embe Lake already described. They 

 lacked the tall lily, and so were much less elevated 

 areas of greenery, and their depth was visibly much less 

 than the sedge-rooted phenomena of the lakes in Papua. 



Turning now to the rain forest areas of the smaller 

 islands, viz., New Britain, New Ireland and Lavongai 

 (late New Hanover) which I visited after I had com- 

 pleted the work on the main island of New Guinea, 

 I must at once confess that the forests were very dis- 

 appointing, and that nowhere except in the Eucalyptus 

 belts — formations which are intrusive and which I 

 have already described — did I find any areas of rain 

 forest fit for commercial exploitation. Fine trees I did 

 find, and a vast number of species, all mixed together 

 in the dense jungle, but nothing immediately profitable 

 to a saw-miller, 

 with the Island of New 







Gable Contents. 



■ 



No. of 



Trees. 





















T.»t.tl. 



IV r Tree 



• 



Per 

 Aero. 



• 



Pomctia pin n at a 



IT"* 

 / i 



10,026 



130 



313 



Dractomelum mangiferum 



11 



1,392 



145 



50 



Alston ia scholar is 



10 



3,008 



860 



112 



Spondias (I /this 



10 



2,311 



231 



72 



Pterocytnb i u m sp. 



5 



1,484 



292 



83 



Unknown . . 



3 



622 



207 



19 



Stcrculia sp. 



1 



156 



lf)6 



5 



Wormia utierci folia . . 



1 



193 



193 



6 



Sarcocephalis cord at us 



1 



204 



204 



y\ 





119 



20,176 



170 



GIG 



Rain Fo&SSTd of THI Powell Rivkk, New Britain 



Sample area of 40 acres at right angles with river. 



Pomctia p inn at a 

 Octomeles sumatrana . . 

 J) rarto m elu m mangiferum 

 Spondias dulcis 

 A Iston ia sc hoi a r is 

 Pteroct/m h i u m sp. 

 Unknown 



I will describe each area beginning 



Stercidia sp. 

 V it ex cofassus 

 Pterocarpus indicus 



\o. or 



Trees. 



( nhie Contents. 





Total. Per Tree 



44 

 14 

 14 

 12 



12 



9 

 8 

 2 

 2 

 1 



118 



4,866 



7,236 



2,726 



2,787 



2,578 



2,244 



1,096 



492 



84 



49 



Per 



Acre 



24,178 



110 

 518 



215 



232 

 2 lo 



250 



137 



246 



42 

 49 



2< >5 



121 

 181 

 63 

 69 

 63 

 56 

 27 



12 



2 



1 



595 



Rain Forests of the Island of New J>ritaix. 



All round the island occurs the characteristic rain " ~ 



forest which I have already described. The popula- J t w {\\ be seen that the mixture is not so great as in 



tiqn on the lower, flatter portions where the largest mos t rain forests. The volume, on the other hand, is 



tree 



s 



should grow is 



m many parts very small, so 

 that I had high hopes of finding virgin high forest of 



not hi 

 made 



igh, and in the inland sample urea it is mainly 

 up of Octomeles. In both areas Ponietia pinnata is 



good quality along the valleys of some of the larger the best represented species, and curiously enough Celtis 



rivers. These, however, I did not find but instead philippinensis, which was so well represented in the Xew 



found large areas of second rate rain forest which had Guinea forests, was scarce here, and no tree of mill log 



every appearance of having been farmed over in the size was found in either sample area- The Pometia or 



distant past and having regrown, but had not as yet " tun," as the natives around Rabaul call this species, 



reached full maturity. It is probable that the cause grows big and tall in the forests, and not only is its 



was not cultivation but fire, for large as is the rainfall average volume higher than usual, but it is less grooved 



there is no doubt — the evidence of the burnt eucalyptus and buttressed, therefore a better mill log. The rarity 



