170 PYGMIES AND PAPUANS 



likely to prevent any further progress. But a short 

 excursion up the valley of the Wataikwa showed the 

 impossibility of reaching the highest mountains by that 

 route, and a camp was accordingly established on the 

 Wataikwa with a view to crossing that river when an 

 opportunity should occur. 



These excursions were all made with the assistance of 

 natives, without whose assistance no advance beyond 

 Parimau would have been possible, so long as all the 

 coolies were occupied in the work on the river. Very 

 little reliance could be placed on the natives, when they 

 were working as carriers alone without coolies, and most 

 of us at one time or another had the disagreeable experi- 

 ence of being deserted by them and left unable to move 

 either backwards or forwards. It was in circumstances 

 such as these that the Gurkhas, some of whom always 

 accompanied us in journeys through the jungle, shewed 

 to the best advantage. 



When the store of provisions at Parimau was com- 

 pleted, the next step was to establish a further depot of 

 provisions at the Wataikwa camp. Though the distance 

 between the two places was less than fifteen miles in a 

 straight line, it was a three days' march for a loaded 

 coolie and two camping places were made on the way, 

 one on an island in the Tuaba River, the other on the 

 bank of the Kamura. The first day's march from 

 Parimau began by crossing and recrossing the Mimika 

 several times and here and there wading up the river 

 itself. About three miles up the river we struck off 

 Eastwards through the jungle along a hardly visible 

 native track used by the people going to the village of 



