24 PYGMIES AND PAPUANS 



through the long Eastern prolongation of the island 

 are the great range of the Owen Stanley Mountains, 

 which reach their highest point in Mount Victoria 

 (13,150 feet), and the Stirling Range. 



As might be expected in so mountainous a country 

 there is a large number of rivers and some of them arc 

 of great size. On the North coast the Kaiserin Augusta 

 River rises in Dutch territory and takes an almost 

 Easterly course through German New Guinea to the 

 sea, while the Amberno (or Mamberamo) rises pro- 

 bably from the slopes of the Snowy Mountains and 

 flows Northwards to Point d'Urville. On the South 

 coast, in British New Guinea besides the Purari, Kikor 

 and Turama Rivers, the most important is the Fly River, 

 which has been explored by boat for a distance of more 

 than five hundred miles. In Southern Dutch New 

 Guinea there are almost countless rivers : chief among 

 them are the Digoel, which has been explored for more 

 than four hundred miles ; the Island River, by which 

 a Dutch expedition has recently reached the central 

 watershed of New Guinea ; the Noord River by which 

 Mr. H. Lorentz approached Mount Wilhelmina ; the 

 Utakwa and the Utanata. 



The natives of New Guinea are Papuans and the 

 island is indeed the centre of that race, which is found 

 more or less mixed with other races from the island of 

 Flores as far as Fiji. Though the Papuans in New 

 Guinea itself have been in many places altered by 

 immigrant races, for instance by Malays in the extreme 

 West, and by Polynesian and Melanesian influences in 

 the South and East, there yet remain large regions, 



