177 



This ridge separates the Kuak from the Bulling river a splendidly-cut trail, dropped down to the Bulung 



and the path, after crossing it, skirts the knife-edge 

 top after passing along the face of a precipice. No- 

 where, however, is there any difficulty, for the natives 

 have made deep side cuts and have sunk piles into the 

 faces of precipices and built the pathway on this 

 foundation. So down to the village, which is 5.851 



feet above the sea, where I was well-received by the 

 mission natives and given a hot lunch of boiled fowl, 

 potatoes and cabbage. Such diet is practically un- 

 known, even at sea level, except where there is ice, 

 and to find it back in the mountains speaks volumes 

 for the civilizing influence of the Lutheran mission. 



Looking back on Tobu, it seemed smothered in bam- 

 boo. These bamboos had been planted to serve as a 

 supply of buckets to the village. All about New 



Guinea a length of bamboo, with all but the bottom 

 node knocked out, seems the usual container for water, slope. Yet this method of W getting about is the usual 



PP— — - * & 



river (2,878 feet) almost 3,000 feet below. We are to 



follow up the Bulung, leaving the big valley with the 



confluent Jameng on the left (right bank) and then 

 follow up — having crossed the main stream — the 

 westerly head water which is called Nomi, leaving the 

 Galep to our right. All this the guide explained 

 quite lucidly. After crossing the Bulung, we climbed 

 up to the village of Zaring which is the end of the 

 graded track. From there on began the dear old 

 Papuan scramble up hill and down dale following a 

 hunting pad which always took the worst grades Up 

 the steepest slopes. Nowhere was the comparison 

 brought home to me so clearly. A few minutes before 

 I had been jogging along a good zig-zagged track, and 

 uddenly I was clambering and hanging on, often on 

 my hands and knees, dragging myself up a 45 deg., 



s 



and little boys think nothing of dropping a thousand 

 feet down to the river in the gorge and bringing up 



full pipes of water. Further up on the divide, I met 



more bamboos, but it was the small mountain variety, 

 and was growing in among the usual mid-mountain 



one in all the mountain country in all other parts of 

 Papua and New Guinea I have visited. After a thou- 

 sand feet of scramble we reached a farm hut and there 

 decided to camp. A heavy mist-rain hastened the de- 

 cision and I w r as glad when I had my tent up. This 

 is the first time it has been pitched since I started 

 out, for I have slept in excellent guest-houses in the 



villages. 



I had counted on village kai kai 



: 11 



to- 



night for the boys, but the rain prevented any being 

 brought up to us, and I had to open our precious rice 

 supply, which I must depend on from now on to Sara- 

 waket and back. I have a day's extra supply in case 

 something goes wrong and the trip takes longer than 



forest surrounded by such ground cover as Elatostema 

 and with Agapetes growing in the branches of the oaks 

 overhead. There was a good patch of forest just before 

 I reached Ogeramnang, and 1 hope to make a survey 

 of this on the way back, if I find no better of the type 

 between here and Sarawaket. Had a good talk v/ith 

 the people here, who make it a two-day trek to Sara- 

 waket and so spending a day on the top, I should be 



back here m five clays. The view from here is spoilt, three days there and three days back, which is a small 

 for the clouds come down to the village edge and all reserve in this land where the unexpected is the only 

 one can see is the bright sunlit valley of the Bulling, 

 which is very steep and is slashed here and there with 

 rock exposures and scarred with land slips where the 

 formation is shale. Here and there patches of farm 

 lands show up, with their lower edges retained by stone 

 and post fences. As in the valley of the Kuak, terrac- 

 ing will become more and more necessary. I am 

 surprised at the small amount of grass lands. Here 



certain event. 



Of forests, to-day we saw none, for all the valley 

 was farmed and hereabouts the grass has taken a big 

 hold. The terracing is good, but they will soon have 

 to put more stones and less sticks into their retaining 

 walls. Dammmopxi* was the most conspicuous tree 

 on the 45 deg. slope, and except for leguminous an- 



DLiiuiicjcu ai i ilk: small cilii^uiil ui ^id^s ictiius. J-jeit? . i r -i i i p i 



j a ,i c i ■ n j.i i .i nuals and a lew bushes, the rest or the vegetation was 



and there patches of grass occur, and all through the ttW *« <*"". . ' , 5 , 



weed regrowth a sprinkling of grass is to be found, 



but nowhere are there large areas of savannah forest. 

 At sunrise on the 15th, the crest of Sarawaket could 

 be seen seme 30 miles to the west — a rounded grass- 

 covered hump above the dark green moss forest 

 of intervening mountains, and in this bright dawn 

 all the valley and the sea coast itself was clear, and 

 I was reminded of the valley of the upper Kemp Welch 

 in Papua. It was more mountainous, and the sides 

 were more precipitous, but the great difference was 

 the total absence of large grass lands. There is no 



dry belt influence in the Bulunh. No Eucalyptus 6,0/6 teet. 



vegetation and no Savannah forest. Ogeramnang is 



a pretty village, and the natives have shown taste w T ith 



their tree fern fences and borders of scarlet balsams. 



While the temperature at noon was 61 deg., it grew 



cold as the clouds came down and a Scotch mist drove 



through the village. The male natives looked cold 



grass. This would be a pretty camp, starred as the grass 

 and bracken are with all colours of balsams. One 

 white and pink is new to me, but they are all probably 

 crosses for the shades vary from white through mauve to 

 scarlet. The scarlet one may be a separate species, for 

 its leaves differ. My tent and fly are very little pro- 

 tection in this driving mist-rain, and I wish I could 

 get the contractor to spend a night in it up here. The 

 boys are better off for, if crowded, the farm hut keeps 

 out the wet. Temperature at 5 p.m. was 48 deg. Fahr., 

 and the boiling point thermometer made the camp 



16th November. — I was fortunate in getting a clear 

 sky and good atmospheric conditions and so rated my 

 watch and approximately fixed the camp, which is 

 called Kudungeng. The day dawned overcast and we 

 started off at 6.15 in a mist, which promised as soon as 

 the south-east trade got up to turn into rain, and it 

 sitting on their hunkers, mouth on knees, dressed in k ep t its promise. We rose very steeply 2,000 feet, and 

 tapi cloth pereneal bands, gazing at me. I was glad then followed a divide running south-westerly and wes- 



I brought up some heavy flannel clothes. They stuff 

 the band up with padding fore and aft for some 

 reason which I thought hardly discreet to inquire, 

 otherwise, they are quite naked. The women wear 

 <( grass" skirts and come in late from working on their 

 plots of garden land, carrying the usual net bag from 

 their foreheads. This is stuffed with food supplies and 

 firewood, and the baby sits on top — a naked, brown, 

 happy little person till he sees me. I have re-packed 

 up my gear, and am leaving everything at this village 

 net actually wanted for my five-day trip up Sara- 

 waket and back. I stored the extra rice and gear in 

 the mission boys' house. 



15th November. — Cheered by the glimpse of our 

 destination, we left Ogeramnang early and, following 



g 



terly, possibly between two arms of the Bulung. All was 

 covered in cloud, and so 1 could only guess the topo- 

 raphy. We were right in the true moss forest and 

 chilled to the bone, so at 1 o'clock, having reached 

 a running brook in a little dip, T decided to camp in 

 this disagresable region. The carriers were divided 

 into two lots, those in front with me wished to push on 

 and up to a grass patch they knew of, but the rear 

 guard, which was some time arriving, were so dejected 

 and weary, and as half of them were women carrying 

 native foods, who had to get back again to their homes 

 several thousand feet below by nightfall, T decided to 

 camp. Several of the dauntless ones pushed on in 

 front with rice and stores not immediately required, 

 and the wise ones made a camp as best they could in 



