212 PYGMIES AND PAPUANS 



as by night in swarms, and attacked everybody on board 

 so furiously that hfe became quite intolerable. Before 

 we left the anchorage up the river we saw a magnificent 

 view of the snows of Mount Carstensz towering up over 

 the morning mists. From there the Snow Mountains, 

 making as it were a steep wall across the view to the 

 North, appear far more imposing than they do in the 

 rather sidelong view from the Mimika ; and the different 

 aspect of the precipices as seen from the Utakwa was 

 most instructive. 



Whilst we were waiting at the mouth of the river 

 we were visited by several parties of natives in canoes, 

 who came, they informed us, from a large village on the 

 Kupera Pukwa, the next river to the west of the 

 Utakwa. They appeared to use the same, or almost 

 the same, language as the people of Mimika, and they 

 were very anxious that we should go and visit their 

 village, but unfortunately we had no means of doing so. 



An interesting sight at the mouth of the Utakwa 

 // were the Dugongs [Halicore auslralis), which were seen 

 feeding on the weeds in the shallow water and occasion- 

 ally rose up and stared at us in a curiously human 

 manner. They are about " eight feet long and are 

 perfectly inoffensive creatures, but they have been 

 "fished" for with nets and almost exterminated in 

 many places on account of their valuable oil. 



The Dutch expedition came down to us in detach- 

 ments during the three days that w^e waited at the 

 mouth of the river. There were Captain Van der Bie, in 

 command ; Mr. J. M. Dumas, surveyor and naturalist ; 

 three white sergeants, about fifty native soldiers and 



