BRITISH NEW GUINEA. 427 



vegetation. To soale tliis monntaiii peak wa^ the ardent 

 ambition of" many an aspiring- and adventnresonie mind. 

 Expeditions were organised and traversed the Kemp-Weleh 

 Valley, but it was not until Mr. Cuthbertson arrived on the 

 scene that its hidden resources were brought to light. This 

 explorer, who was the emissary of the lloyal Geographical 

 Society of Australasia, very pluckily succeeded in reaching 

 an altitude of about (SOUO feet, where surrounding objects 

 were rendered difficult to observe by a dense curtain of fog. 

 Although Mr. Cuthbertson from his position was able to 

 observe the Peak of Mount Victoria, on the Owen Stanley 

 Range, and to obtain a good view of the surrounding range, 

 it is still a matter of doubt with some whether higher points 

 on the Obree llange might not have been hidden from view 

 by one of the numerous mist columns which so frequently 

 obscure the subalpine zones of the mountain. 



When Sir Wm. MacGregor first visited this district the 

 people inhabiting its most easterly part were more warlike 

 than those nearer the seat of Government. This was espe- 

 cially the ease with the Cloudy Bay natives, who Avere 

 associated with one of the most horrible tragedies ever wit- 

 nessed in Papua. To those interested in New Guinea the 

 shocking details connected with the massacre of Rochefort 

 and M'Tier will still be fresh in the memory. Arriving in 

 Cloudy Bay these two men, in quest of gold, were brutally 

 murdered when in the act of crossing a small stream. When 

 some time afterwards Sir Wm. MacGregor was on an expe- 

 dition to the locality, he saw fragments of the skulls of the 

 wretched victims to savagery lying on the bank of the 

 stream. The villages of Merani and Isimare, situated on the 

 Domara Wai, a small stream fiowing into Cloudy Bav, were 

 fortified by strong palisades and tree houses. The soil of 

 the locality is very rich, the cultivated products plentiful, 

 and the vegetation most luxuriant. Overlooking this locality 

 are Mounts Suckling and Clarence. The former, some 

 11,000 feet above sea level, was ascended by the Adminis- 

 trator, and an exploration of its neighbourhood conducted. 

 As the result of these operations several new birds, &c. were 

 added to science, and fresh accessions to our hitherto limited 

 knowledge of the geography of the region made. 



From a geographical standpoint the central and western 

 divisions have yielded a more plentiful harvest during the 

 period over which these remarks extend, than probably any 

 other part of the possession. .The extension of our know- 



