AT FOOT OF THE SNOW MOUNTAINS 217 



a promise of the assistance of thirty carriers for one 

 trip to carry up my gear to an altitude of five to six 

 thousand feet, to a point from which a height of 

 10,000 feet would be available within three days' 

 further journey. This offer I decided to avail myself 

 of, and left for the coast on December 16, 1910, 

 with the intention of collecting in Central Dutch New 

 Guinea. The voyage, I learned, was by steamer up 

 Island River 200 kilometres, by launch (two days), 

 80 kilometres, and by canoe (four days), 60 kilometres, 

 then by road eight days' journey. Going by canoe 

 there were to be a hundred and ten rapids to 

 negotiate. 



" Properly speaking," I wrote to the Tring Museum 

 at the time, " I should not make this second collection, 

 for my health has been such that only during last 

 week has my right leg resumed its normal size. 

 Previous to this I could press my finger into the leg 

 anywhere and leave a deep hole of half an inch or so. 

 These are all the symptoms of beri-beri (which it is 

 not, for I have had it before). I have had one boy 

 down with beri-beri at Oetakwa, but he pulled 

 through." 



There was no affectation in what I wrote to the 

 Museum about the ill-advisedness, from a point of 

 view of health, of undertaking a second collecting 

 trip without a spell. The Oetakwa expedition had 

 been a very trying one, partly on account of the 

 impossibility of getting decent food, partly on account 



