i:il;)] The Pygmies of New Guinea 765 



WEEKLY EYENINa MEETING, 

 Friday, May 16, 191:^.. 



Henry- E. Armstrong, Esq., Ph.D. LL.D. F.R.S., Vice-President, 

 in the Chair. 



Captain Cecil G. Rawling, CLE. F.R.(r.8. 

 The Pygmies of New Guinea. 



An expedition, ori^anised by the Ornithologists' Union and assisted 

 by the Royal Geographical Society, left England in October 1909 for 

 the south-western coast of Dutch New Guinea, for the purpose of 

 survey and to form collections of the fauna and flora of that district. 

 As that portion of the island had never been previously visited, and 

 as it lay in close proximity to the great central snow-clad range, it 

 was hoped that many new species of mammals, birds, reptiles, etc., 

 would be obtained. The expedition consisted of Mr. W. Goodfellow, 

 a noted ornithologist, as leader, Mr. A. F. R. Wollaston, medical 

 officer, botanist and entomologist, and Messrs. W. Stalker and G. Short- 

 ridge, assistant-collectors. The survey section was represented by my- 

 self and Mr. E. Marshall as assistant-surveyor and surgeon. We 

 arrived at Batavia on December 1st, and were there joined by ten 

 Gurkhas from Darjeeling. The Dutch authorities most kindly sup- 

 plied forty Javanese soldiers and their necessary convict carriers, and 

 transported the whole force to the mouth of the Mimika River, one 

 of the only two known river-mouths on the south-western coast of 

 New Guinea. Our own coolies had been recruited at Amboina, and 

 later on when these Ijroke down others were obtained from Boetan 

 and Macassar. Neither the Javanese troops, their carriers, nor any 

 of our followers, were of the stamp of man to withstand the climate 

 of New Guinea. Our total losses by death reached 12 per cent, and 

 those invalided out of the country 83 per cent. Of nearly four 

 hundred men employed only eleven lasted out the expedition, and of 

 these four were Europeans and four Gurkhas. As the Dutch have 

 learnt from experience, no men of the Dutch East Indies, except 

 Dyaks, are of any value as carriers in the western half of the island 

 of New Guinea. On the morning of the 3rd January, 1910, the 

 coast was sighted. 



Beyond the water-laden mist which completely enveloped the low- 

 lying couutry to the foothills of the central range, fifty miles distant, 

 rose line upon line of knife-edged forest-clad ridges, lying east and 



