EXCURSION TO THE WANIA 249 



and many of them, both men and women go completely 

 naked, a habit which is never practised by the people 

 of Wakatimi. Scarcity of petrol and an irregularly 

 sparking plug brought that excursion to an untimely 

 end, before the lower waters of the Wania had been 

 investigated. 



From our hill-top (see p. 239) the Wania was 

 evidently by far the most considerable of all the rivers 

 of the district, and apart from our desire to see the 

 people of the Wania, of whom the Mimika natives 

 always spoke with great respect, we felt bound to 

 explore that river as far as possible. Accordingly on 

 March 14, Rawling, Marshall and I, with a Dutch 

 pioneer, two Gurkhas and three coolies, set off in the 

 motor boat towing the yawl, a ship's boat about 

 twenty feet long, laden with tents and provisions for 

 a week. In a few hours we arrived at the mouth of 

 the Wania river and found that owing to the low tide 

 there was no way of crossing the sand-bar that lay 

 across the entrance. This circumstance was the more 

 remarkable, because only a few days earlier Rawling 

 had come through this bar by a very deep channel. 

 The frequent changes in the banks make the naviga- 

 tion of this coast and particularly of the river mouths 

 exceedingly difficult. 



On this occasion the sea was already rather rough, 

 so that we could not anchor and wait until the tide 

 rose, and as the wind was increasing in force there 

 was nothing for it but to turn back and try to take 

 shelter in one of the rivers between the Wania and the 

 Mimika, if not in the Mimika itself. All went well 



