THE LONG WET SEASON 79 



many canoes capsized — I think all of us had at least 

 one involuntary ducking — but a well-laden canoe is 

 comparatively steady, and most of the upsets hap- 

 pened to empty canoes going down the river and nothing 

 was lost but coolies' scanty baggage, which was 

 easily replaced. The Javanese coolies of the escort, 

 who were even less skilled watermen than ours, suffered 

 rather more accidents, but one boat-load of provisions 

 and two rifles were the total of their losses. 



There w^re periods, lasting for several weeks, when 

 the river was almost continuall}^ in flood, and there 

 were other, but always shorter, periods when the 

 river was low ; but though we spent fifteen months in 

 New Guinea the time was not long enough to determine 

 at all accurately the limits of the seasons, for the first 

 three months of 191 1 differed considerably from the 

 corresponding months of the previous year. Speaking 

 generally, it may be said of the Mimika district that 

 the weather from mid-October to the middle of April is 

 finer than the weather from the middle of April to the 

 middle of October. These two periods correspond more 

 or less with the monsoons, but it is notable that whereas 

 in British New Guinea the period of the Eastern mon- 

 soon. May to November, is the drier, here the reverse 

 is the case. The finest weather appears to be in 

 November and December, and the wettest weather 

 is in July, August and September. The terms " fine " 

 and " wet " are used only relatively, for it is almost 

 always wet. In the first twelve months of our stay 

 rain fell on three hundred and thirty days. It was 

 very unfortunate that we did not provide ourselves 



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