16 



which, with myriad prostrate Barringtonia-seedVmgs, attached by the one 

 anchor-root, all pointing seawards, bear witness to the force of great waves 

 retreating from their rush inland. 



In many places this undergrowth was so thick, or the prostrate trunks so 

 numerous, that it was easiest to walk through the surf, outside the branches 

 of the fringing trees. The rivers, where there is no sand to bar their exit, 

 form small mangrove swamps at their mouths, which have to be waded 

 through. In one of these small swamps a tree covered with a vine of 

 Mucuna Kratkei,a\so known from the N.E. and S.W., whose numerous huge 

 racemes formed a dome of brilliant red flowers, was a magnificent sight. 



Wariap. 



Here, where the people all remembered Mr. van Oosterzee and the 

 Pratts, I was welcomed as an old friend the "korano," a very fine 

 man physically and quite a personality, and the " guru " (teaclier), to whom 

 I had a letter from Mr. van Hasselt, having already paid their respects at 

 Waren. It was arranged that the "korano," Manao, should act as guide to 

 my party to the Likes, and the Wariap people of themselves offered to 

 accompany me as carriers, promising to remain as long as I stayed there 

 a promise sealed on " Pinang " and " Zabacco," as they call the latter, and 

 faithfully kept. " Pinang " replaces betel-nut on the coast of N. New 

 Guinea, being obtained from the wild Areca macrocalyv Zipp. (12, i. 18) 

 and eaten with lime and the fruit of Piper Siriboa (14, 69). 



Wariap, situated on a sand-spit through which the Momi has cut its 

 broad way on one side, forming a good harbour for praus, while on the 

 other Casuarinas are massed, is quite a large and busy " campong," where 

 much prau-building and making of Pandanus mats (nokes) and sago-holders 

 is carried on. 



The long whale-backed houses are built above the beach, on a level spit 

 of very fine sand, which, overgrown with grass and Pes-Caprce, is broken by 

 shallow green lagoons shadowed by a jungle upgrowth of Thespesia populnea, 

 Abrus precatorius, Ccesalpinia Nuga, Wedelia tiflora> etc. 



(V) INUNDATION FOREST BELT. 



Just behind the beach formation this forest forms a huge unbroken green 

 wall, in which the pyramidal branching of Terminalia Catappa is easily 

 distinguished from the outside, whilst most of the trees are covered with the 

 heavy green curtains, falling straight from the crowns, of Zanonia macro- 

 carpa, a Cucurbitaceous liane. In this forest Ficus, Macaranya, and 

 Artocarpus sp., the latter with enormous leaves often about 1 m. long 

 and m. or more broad, mostly predominate their trunks screened with 

 immense fronds of climbing ferns, spreading radially all the way up, 

 or Epipremnopsis Hugeliana, fiaphidophora Peepla, other Philodendron spp., 



