FELLING TREES 187 



physically ill. Accordingly, during the times when for one 

 reason or another they were not carrying out loads to 

 the Wataikwa camp, we set them to clearing the jungle 

 about the camp at Parimau, and in the course of time 

 some ten or twelve acres were cleared. Apart from 

 the object of drying and letting light into the camp, 

 this clearing was made with the purpose of obtaining 

 from Parimau a view of the Snow Mountains. This 

 latter object was ultimately attained and proved of 

 great service to the surveyors, who were enabled to 

 fix more definitely the various points of the range seen 

 from a place of which they had already determined 

 the position by astronomical observations. To the 

 non-surveyor too the view of the mountains was a 

 boon, though rather a tantalising one, and I used to 

 spend many hours in the mornings, before the mists 

 had hidden them, in scanning the snows of Idenburg 

 and Carstensz and planning routes by which they might 

 be reached. 



Cutting down trees in the New Guinea jungle differs 

 from cutting dov/n trees here in that the tree does not 

 always fall, even when the trunk is cut completely 

 through. Amongst the tops of the trees grows an extra- 

 ordinary network of rattans and other creepers of 

 sufficient strength to support a tree, even if it is inclined 

 to fall. We spent some time one day in firing shots 

 with a rifle at a single creeper, thicker than a man's 

 arm, which was holding up a tree without any other 

 support ; though I beUeve we sometimes pierced the 

 creeper with bullets, it held on and only gave way some 

 hours later. As a rule we did not take the trouble to 



