AN UNPLEASANT EXPERIENCE 251 



held. Another drawback was that the motor boat 

 leaked like a sieve, so that a man was kept constantly 

 at work baling her out, and we did not know that the 

 strain might not open her old timbers even more. 

 There was a glorious full moon which one would have 

 enjoyed seeing from the smooth deck of a steamer, 

 but there we could only think how uncomfortable it 

 was 13'ing (without having had dinner) on boxes and 

 tins and gear of all sorts huddled in the bottom of the 

 boat. 



The wind continued all through the night and the 

 sea did not moderate, so at daylight, after having been 

 for sixteen hours at anchor, we decided to leave the 

 motor boat hoping that it would not be swamped before 

 we were able to come back and fetch it. We all got 

 into the yawl, w'hich we pulled through quite a nasty 

 sea for about three miles to a sand-bank in the estuary 

 of the Timura river, where we camped until the rising 

 tide enabled us to reach the mainland about midnight. 

 On the following day, the sea having become calmer, 

 we rescued the motor boat, which w^as by that time 

 half full of water, and towed it slowly to the Timura. 



But it was a most arduous business and without the 

 help of a party of natives, who fortunately came along 

 the coast in canoes and were prevailed upon to assist 

 us in paddhng, we should never have been able to 

 bring back both of the boats. The arrival of the motor 

 boat at the Mimika on the fitth day, propelled by native 

 paddles instead of by its own power, was not a \ery 

 dignified affair— it resembled rather the formerly familiar 

 sight of the motor-car in tow of a horse from the plough 



