772 Captain Cecil G. Rawling [May 16, 



obtained. Rations were again reduced to a minimum, and a fresh 

 attempt made the following day. We were well rewarded. To the 

 south lay the interminable" plain without a break, except where the 

 shining waters of the great rivers appeared and vanished in the dense 

 foi-est. Not a lake or a treeless swamp lay in the whole hundred 

 miles from the Charles Louis Mountains in the west to the farthest 

 point beyond Carstensz in the east and to the coastline fifty miles 

 away. Along the foot of the lower hills lay that belt of forest some 

 five miles in width through which we had had so much difficulty in 

 cutting a path across to the Iwaka. There the rate of progress, with 

 an average of five men at work a day, had been no more than three 

 hundred yards in the twenty-four hours, the average falling some 

 days to a bare one hundred and fifty yards. And then, when com 

 pleted, the road had to be abandoned and a fresh line cut, for the 

 going was such as to render it impracticable for coolie transport. 

 To the east lay the great mass of Cocks Comb, its three equal points 

 showing clear against the sky. Beyond and to the north lay the wild 

 southern slopes of Carstensz. Directly behind to the north-west 

 rose Mount Godman and Wataikwa Mountain and the great ridges 

 running from the north. But grander than all was the main 

 backbone of the Nassau Eange. From Carstensz in the east to 

 Mount Leonard Darwin, and beyond that again to the west, but with 

 a dwindling altitude, lay a great precipice, eighty miles or more in 

 length, seamed with cracks and fissures, but, to the eye, unclimbable. 

 The greatest sheer height measured with a theodolite showed six 

 thousand five hundred feet, but we were never in a position to use 

 that instrument when the foot and the summit were visible at the 

 same time. The greatest vertical height is Mount Leonard Darwin 

 itself, and here, it is little !ess than ten thousand feet, or about one 

 and thi'ee-quarter miles. It appears to consist of hard limestone, the 

 strata being clear and distinct. The dip is at an angle of twenty-five 

 degrees to the north, and as no higher mountains were seen beyond, 

 and as the south-flowing streams take their rise from the precipice, 

 there is little doubt that the main water parting between north and 

 sontli Dutch New (iuinea is along the summit of this precipice. The 

 mountains to the soutli are mucli broken, and so covered with vegeta- 

 tion that the strata can be but seldom seen. An outcrop of slate 

 with perpendicular strata exists in the bed of the Iwaka nineteen 

 miles to the south, and close by is a quantity of clay. Seams of coal, 

 varying in width of from four to eight inches, and strong evidences of 

 petroleum, were also found in the same neighbourhood. A few miles 

 below granite boulders lay scattered about the river beds, together 

 with iron-ore, and tin in small quantities. There were no signs what- 

 ever of the i)iesence of gold. However rich the country may be in 

 these metals, the climate is such that the cost of imported labour to 

 work them is prohibitive. No local labour is available, no food sup- 

 plies, and no local niciuis of transport. The rainfall alone is such as 



