310 PYGMIES AND PAPUANS 



researches will reveal that the problem is not so simple 

 as that just indicated. 



Writing in 1902, Dr. Weule states (Globus, lxxxii. 

 p. 247) that he has no further doubts as to the existence 

 of pygmies in New Guinea, though it is not yet clear 

 whether they live in definite groups or as scattered 

 remnants among the taller peoples. He points out that 

 information as to the pygmies was of necessity scanty, 

 as expeditions had always followed the course of rivers 

 where encounter with them might least be expected, 

 since they are for the most part mountain people.—* 

 Through the activity of Sir William MacGregor and 

 others, British New Guinea is "the least unknown" part 

 of the whole island ; there is therefore more likelihood of 

 pygmy peoples being discovered in German or Nether- 

 lands New Guinea, the latter being entirely a terra incog- 

 nita from the geographical standpoint. Dr. Weule's 

 article contains various references to previous literature 

 on the pygmy question, and three photographs of 

 pygmies from the middle Ramu are reproduced, which 

 show three men well under 142 cm. (4 ft. 8| ins.) in 

 height. 



The later history of the discovery of a pygmy sub- 

 stratum in the population of parts of New Guinea is as 

 follows : — / 



Dr. M. Kriegjr had visited the Sattelberg and the 

 neighbourhood of Simbang where he heard reports of 

 dwarfs from natives, but no European had seen them 

 (Neu Guinea, 1899, p. 143) ; subsequently Dr. R. Poch 

 stayed from December 1904 to February 1905 in the Kai 

 area, which lies inland from Finschhafen in German New 

 Guinea. In the Mitt, aiis den deutscheii Schutzgehieten 

 1907, he writes (p.* 225): "During the first part of the 

 time I remained chiefly on the Sattelberg itself, and 

 observed and measured the various Kai frequenting the 

 Mission Station. In them I became acquainted with a 



