THE FIRST PEBBLES 87 



order of intelligence, if one may judge from the apathy 

 with which they received us and saw us go on our way. 



As we proceeded further, on the fourth day the river 

 became a good deal smaller, having derived several 

 tributaries from the low hills which were by that time 

 not far distant on the right bank, and as the current 

 became increasingly swifter it was evident that the 

 Kapare did not promise a better means of approach by 

 water to the mountains than the Mimika, 



We were rather amused, when we came to the first 

 bank of shingle, by the natives who were with us bringing 

 us gifts of stones, as though they were something new 

 and rare : probably they thought that as we came, for 

 all they knew, from the sea, we had never seen such 

 things before. 



On the fifth day we left the baggage behind and went 

 on in one unladen canoe, hoping to reach the point 

 where Rawling had met the Kapare River by walking 

 overland from the Mimika, but we were stopped a few 

 miles short of that place by heavy rapids, which 

 effectuaUy prevented any further investigation of the 

 river. 



The excursion up the Kapare was a further illus- 

 tration, if one had been needed, of the futility of under- 

 taking an expedition in that country without a steam 

 launch or motor-boat. When it was found that the 

 Mimika was only an insignificant river, which the first 

 excursion up it would have shown, the Kapare River 

 might have been explored from Periepia, a matter 

 which could have been done in two days instead of the 

 seven occupied by the journey in canoes, and after that 



