185 



18th February. — Sent our visitors to Hombogcde to 



The 



at 7 miles was 150 to 170 yards wide, and 



bring the remainder of my gear along. The three police made a bend north, and there were more islands in 

 boys, Peter (herbarium assistant), and I took a track sight. The Bismarcks were very plain, with the south- 

 going south past four old coconut palms, through a easterly peaks, which I took to be Mounts Otto and 



garden to a wide pandanus swamp. This was waist- 

 deep and running slowly in a north-easterly direction. 

 Before we were half-way across we could hear the 

 roar of a large river, and, on scrambling cut of the 

 water, found ourselves on a high bank with only a 

 large, well fenced yam garden separating us from the 

 Ramu. So much for the truthfulness of the inhabi- 

 tants. The distance from Ionomba to the river is 

 barely a mile, and the yam garden is obviously the 

 property of the villagers, whose tracks are quite clear. 

 The river here is 70 yards wide, and running 

 quite as swiftly as at Swamp Camp. Logs, masses of 

 grass, and islands of bank vegetation were hurtling 

 down. Returned to camp, where I found some of my 



Helweg, standing out very sharply. From here out, 

 looks np the great valley between the true Bismarcks 

 and the subsidiary and much lower mountain mass 

 known as Hagen, that confronted me at Swamp Camp 

 and which carries the big grass triangle. The big 

 valley should prove the best route up to the main 

 range, and judging by the areas under cultivation, 

 the population must be heavy. On returning to camp 

 I found my carriers back from Madang with rice. 

 They have taken a week to do a five days' march. From 

 my experience since first seeing the Ramu, I consider 

 that I may expect the same impassable swamp condi- 

 tions for many miles up stream. The river is quite 

 impassable, except by big canoes, hereabouts, but the 



I lombagede loads had arrived, but three still remained presence of islands inclines me to think that a widening 

 to come to-morrow. Two of the Ionomba runaways js taking place. I decided to circumvent the swamp 

 came back, and I sent them into the bush again to 

 bring all the people in. They still denied all know- 

 ledge of the Ramu and of a road south-east. An 

 exasperating people ! 



19th February. — Returned to the Ramu and started 

 my boys track cutting, one gang down the river and 



by climbing to the hills again and thence zigzagging 

 down to the river till I found a crossing. 



21st February. — Left Ionomba at 7.15 and forded 



the Boku 2 1 miles up, passing the two-hut 



hamlet, then followed the Boku up — east — until 

 we reached Kirike (Krip). Here the river turned 



the other up my idea being to discover, if possible, a north-east and we followed it only a little way to the 

 track leading to the water or any signs of life on the 

 opposite bank indicating a crossing. I have hopes 

 that this occurs at the mouth of the Boko. I then 

 spent the morning pulling up my aerial and opening 

 up a place for night observations. Picked up time 

 from Manila at 1 p.m. satisfactorily. In the after- 

 noon pushed on up the Boku and found a well-beaten reached a tributary on the right and, leaving the 

 track leading up to a little two-house hamlet, and then main stream, we climbed a hill as steep as a house and 



reached Ongoruna. A seven and a half hours' march, 

 but the distance would not be more than li) 



village of Munowana, leaving a village of Korona 

 somewhere on our left. Pushing on up a small track 

 we reached the Yakumbu, which turns out to be our 



Ghiragan of Hombogedo. The track, as is the moun- 

 tain trick, took to the river, and so, paddling up the 

 very rocky, swift -running river for one hour, we 



crossing the river it went to Kirike, which boasts eight 

 houses. 



20th February. — Went up stream (Ramu) and found 

 the four boys I had put on the work had done three 

 miles. The high bank scon finished and the ground 

 grew wetter and wetter. Islands appeared in the 

 river, and the overflow of the banks became more and 



more marked. 



Th 



e going was very bad, especially 



miles, for the going was had. The bed of the Yakumba 

 was littered with rocks of all sizes and colours, some 

 Bbft, smooth and rounded, others hard and angular. 

 Everything seemed there, from mndstone and sand- 

 stones to quartz-veined crystalline rocks and volcanic 



agglomerates, and ureal white masses of rather soft 



through Sacharum spentanewm. Not only was there limestone. The forest on the plan was a poor type, the 

 the usual trouble of breaking this tough 15-feet high country being too low-lying, and so subject to inunda- 

 tion. Had I penetrated any way on either side of 

 the Boku or the Yakumba, I should, I know, have 



found swam]) such as I waded and cut my way through 

 yesterday. Further up, the land was high enough, 

 but it rose too rapidly and soon was too steep to carry 

 anything but the pole woods. It came on to rain 

 hard as we climbed the last slippery piece of the track, 



grass down by means of poles, but the boys were 

 begged calf to waist-deep all the time. We came 



on the tracks of a party of natives with women and 

 children, and judged them to be the runaway Ionomba 

 people. No tributaries were met with, and, having 

 reached 7 miles up, I turned north and cut a track 

 towards the hills; a sugarloaf peak of one being 

 clearly visible, made a good mark. The reason for 

 no confluents was soon apparent, for all the country 

 for 2 miles deep was under water, which was flowing 

 slowly, parallel with the main river, The smaller 

 streams clearly empty into this trough and so reach 

 the larger tributaries like the Boku which, doubtless, 

 empty direct into the Ramu at breaks in the banks. 

 This inundated country varies from 3 inches to breast- 

 deep, and carries a vegetation consisting very largely 

 of a Pandanm without prop roots. This and Sacha- 

 rum cover large areas, with scattered Sarcocephatus 



and when we reached Ongoruna the mount 



mist 



and a prop-rooted tree like Soneratia. I saw very 

 few prop-rooted screw pines, which is curious, for 

 this is usually the commonest species. Both occurred 

 in the first swamp we crossed below Ionomba. Climb- 

 ing ferns made the stems nice and green, but except 

 for staghcrn, the crowns of the trees carried no epi- 

 phytes. Game was very plentiful, cassowary, horn- 

 bills, pigeons innumerable, including the crested Coma. 

 There were also plenty of birds of paradise about. I 

 had hoped to reach high ground and so push on parallel 

 with the main stream, but I had to abandon the 

 attempt and we returned to camp muddied from head quently the natives went over the range Ihemselves at 



came down and blotted out the view. I noticed, how- 

 ever, two Araucaria, which I took to be hoop pines. 



The height works out at 1,813 feet, which is very low 

 for aiaucarias. The village is divided into two, and 

 is the largest 1 have seen in these parts. 



22nd February. — In a country so thinly populated it 

 was good to see so large a roll-up of natives as occurred 

 this morning. Still, the food supply is meagre, and 

 I had to send ten boys back to Madang for further 

 rations. The difficulty of travelling in New Guinea in 

 Unpopulated or hostile country is that your carrier eats 

 himself out of rice in 18 to- 21 days, and unless you 



can make a base camp within easy reach of the supplies, 

 with a friendly population in between, who will supply 

 food to the carriers, penetration inland with instru- 

 ments, collecting gear, tents, &c. # becomes impossible. 



The people of Ongoruna, except the old men, had all 



been to work on plantations and spoke pidgin, yet 

 I hey have never been visited by Government officers. A 

 missionary once came to them, and a recruiter. Chinese, 

 however, seem to have begun the recruiting, and eubse- 



to foot and very tired. 



the call of their brothers to work on plantations close 



