CANOEING ^ UP THE MIMIKA 73 



' not from laziness but because the irregular time 



* is so horribly irritating. If the coolies would 

 ' only paddle lazily but regularly all would be 

 ' well, but they will not ; they paddle all together 

 ' furiously for perhaps twenty or thirty strokes 

 ' and then vary between a haphazard rag-time 

 ' and doing nothing at all. 



" Most of the time I watch the banks go by 

 ' and wonder how long it will take us to get to 

 •' the end of this reach, which bears a remarkable 

 ' resemblance to the last and to the next. The 

 ' jungle is as ugly as it can be, rank undergrowth, 

 ' trailing rattans and scraggy rotting trees. In 

 ' forty miles I do not think there are half a dozen 

 ' big trees worth looking at. Very occasionally 

 ' you see a flowering creeper, one with clusters of 



* white flowers is here and there, and I have seen 

 ' a few of the gorgeous flaming D'Albertis creeper 

 ' (Mtccuna pmriens). Butterflies are seldom seen 

 ' and birds one hardly hears at all. The banks 

 ' are steep slimy brown mud, littered with the 

 ' trunks and limbs of rotten trees, which also 



* stick up all over the river like horrid muddy 

 ' bones. 



" Altogether it is as gloomy and depressing as 

 ' it can be, there is no view, not even a glimpse 

 ' to shew that we are getting near a mountain 

 ' range. In the midst of all this it generally rains 



* hard and you arrive in camp soaking wet. Then 

 ' see everything taken out of the canoes, tents 



* pitched, canoes securely moored, food given out 



