26 



NATURE 



July 6, 191 1 



made ol pandanas and palm leaves held up by poles cut 

 frony-the forest. Karl, new-comer added on his hut to the 

 at the same time removing the partition, by this 

 ... turning the village into one endless habitation 

 broken by their respective doorways. The floors were of 

 sand brought from the seashore, and, with the exception 

 of the crudest of fireplaces, other furniture there was none 

 Skulls and the bones of departed relatives dangled in grass 

 bags from the roof, blackened by the smoke of the fires 

 -Now and again a wood pillow might be seen, otherwise the 



u£™» ZT ,\ ° UtS ; de th6re St °° d ' read y for in « a nt 

 flLul b, . a - few spears-the heads fashioned 

 f.om the leg-bones of pig or human beings-or a bow and 

 r-fvM arr ows, to which weapons thev flew on the 

 slightest provocation. 



The natives of this portion of New Guinea are divided 

 in to three classes or tribes. First come the people 

 inhabiting the low-lying ground near the coast and extend- 

 ing inland for about twelve miles, and known to us as 

 the coast natives. Then comes a strip of land practically 

 uninhabited, and above this again, on a level with the 

 headwaters of the Mimika, a race known to us as the 

 up-river natives. Still further north, and inhabiting the 

 foothills are the pygmies. These three tribes are entirely 

 distinct from one another, having no communication in the 

 north and south direction— even though living on the same 

 river—but passing freely to the east and west. The dividing 

 hne is hard and fast, and is not crossed except for" 

 occasional purposes of trade. 



With the latitudes of Atabo at the coast and Parimau 

 known, and the azimuth obtained, it was easy to fix all the 

 points m the range from Carstenz in the east to Moun 

 Darwin in the west. The height of Carstenz, formerlv 



SSS? ( ° 1 ab0ut l8 u 00 ° feet ' was found to have an 



altitude of rather more than 16,000 feet, while to the west 

 three more great snow-peaks were discovered, with a 



denb ,,« a R° Ut ^ S ' S0 5 t^' and theSe We named Mouni 



Iclenburg. Beyond and between these two mountains two 



™/T at t t, Sn ° W " PC u ak f WerC Visible ' evidence * a t the 

 ground to the north does not fall abruptly away. But 

 more interesting than all was the discovery that the great 

 range, stretching from Carstenz in the east to the Charles 

 Louis mountains in the west, a distance of eighty miles 

 formed one immense unbroken precipice, culminating in its 

 greater sheer height at Mount Darwin. We were never in 

 a position to measure with the theodolite a greater sheer 

 height of more than 6500 feet, but from many views 

 obtained while climbing I have no hesitation in" stating 

 that the greatest perpendicular height is, at this spot rot 

 less than 10,500 feet, or two miles. 



The snow-line is at about 14,500 feet, the glaciers on 

 fo the 6 ? * escen . d,n « lo t wer and f a »-g over the precipice 

 to the south. From a letter received from Lieut. Postema 

 the naval officer in charge of the survey of he S 

 Expedition on the Oetakwa river, I understand that he 

 is of like opinion that Carstenz mountain is not climb- 

 able The extreme wetness of this district is, without 

 doubt due to the great altitude and proximity of these 



ofTew Gu; n h e e a. rainfaU beIng '" eJKess °' ^ ^ U"on 



To sum up the final results of the expedition : lar-e and 

 and moth, S°f ° f ;' ild % m amma,s, "reptiles, butters 

 ana moths had been formed, together with botanical and 

 ethnographical specimens: a new and unknown a e„ 

 pvgmies discovered studied, measured, and photographed' 

 a range of mountains, containing the greatest precipice in 



V''"'. ' ***»*« -"> 3ooo square" miles of country 

 surveyed and mapped, new snow-mountains found and 

 many great rivers explored: and a long stretch of cots! i 

 surveyed. We had accomplished the longest cross"™ n - 

 journey ever undertaken in Dutch New Guinea * 



of [he m M^-r r '" erCamp ' h ,? d P™e< ' the l»l 

 Dility of the Mimika river as a line of advance to the 

 Snows, and on the other hand, the value of th, 



to the easl if the same g oa , is intended I 

 -•I'M,, nee and our heavy death-roll will bear me out 1 



toZLRl heS,tat '° n '" Sa - vin S' first . that the land ia, 

 impossible on,- to any hut a Papuan ; and secondly th a 

 Uy Picked no natives of the EasiVdie i 

 exception of Dyaks from Borneo, are of the 

 -t value as carriers in South Dutch New Guinea 

 NO. 2175, VOL. 87] 



WORKSHOP AND COLLEGE* 

 JT is now agreed thai engineering training should include 

 scientific instruction and practical and commercial 

 experience. But very divergent views are held as to the 

 relative importance ol thi different components of such a 

 naming and as to the order and duration oi each. VVe 

 tnusl recognise at once that the field ol engineering employ- 

 ment i= a \,r\ wide one, and that different capacities are 

 required in different parts of that field. It is therefore in 

 no way surprising that persons, whose opportunities of 

 observation give them every right to express a definite 

 opinion as to what is best for one special branch of 

 engineering, have arrived at conclusions very different from 

 those held by others, whose field of work' has been in a 

 different branch. No system of engineering training can 

 be arranged to meet all special demands, and it is the 

 objed oi such a conference as this to find out what is 

 most essential in all courses of training and what modifi- 

 cations are practically possible to meet different 



First of all, I think it must be assumed that the 



\ a & '"'"Js ' duration m are specialh 1 barged to 1 onsider 



is that of young men whose aim it is to arrive ultimately 

 at a professional status, such a status as membership of 

 this institution implies. Their hope is to be employed 

 ultimately in the design and control and direction ' of 

 engineering work. Of course, some of them may fail in 

 capacity or may lack opportunity, and may drift to one 

 of the many more commercial occupations allied to 

 engineering; and even there the knowledge they have 

 acquired will be a valuable asset. But at the outset a 

 professional career is aimed at, and the system of engineer- 

 ing education must be arranged to meet that condition. 

 It is probably only by educating many that the few can be 

 lound who have the capacity and character necessary to 

 achieve considerable advances and to do work of national 

 importance. 



Now, very few young men at eighteen can foresee into 

 what line of employment they may be driven, and con- 

 sequently the first or undergraduate stage of education 

 must be broad, so as to fit students for widely different 

 spheres of work. 



Perhaps the greatest defect of engineering education at 

 present is the want of more provision for The higher and 

 more specialised education of the few students" of real 

 capacity discovered in the sifting process of an under- 

 graduate course. 



In spite of the general acceptance of the view that a 

 study of scientific principles and their application is a 

 necessary preliminary to a practical course in field or 

 workshop, a certain jealousy of college education is still 

 obvious in some practical engineers. While conceding in 

 words that some scientific education is necessary to an 

 engineer, they would, in fact, confine it to very elementarv 

 matters. They would greatly restrict the time given to 

 it, and they are disposed to depreciate the value of any 

 higher teaching, and even to regard it as mischievous and 

 likely to unfit a man for the strenuous life of the manu- 

 facturing workshop. 



I believe the idea that a college course unfits a man 

 for practical work is a wholly mistaken one. There may 

 be students who prove unfit for practical work in spite 

 0l CO liege education. They would equally fail if their 

 education was purely practical. There may be college 

 courses, I am afraid it must be said there have bee'n 

 ;" M "-" courses, bad!} arranged, and teachers in colleges 

 less competent than is desirable. But such things ire 

 inevitable. Nothing is more certain than that there has 

 been a great improvement of college teaching of applied 

 si 11 i" e in the lasl twenty years. 



_ An employer who takes into his works college students 

 is, I think, often disposed to expect from" them an 

 hate availability which is unreasonable. I t is not 

 the mam object of a college course to make a student 

 acquainted with the details of any particular business; 

 hat is the p.op.r objecl of the first year or two of prac- 

 lca J "'"';■ '" 'S not the main object of a college course 

 to hi stt idi us specially for such work as will fall to them 



Opening remarks at .1 Conference on 1 . 1 ,,. ,rm -„,d Trainine- of 

 1 < ,"",",' ""T ,ir r "' " l : i,i '« n >nd 111 . Scientific and Practical 

 .''"-•.rt 1.^1.1 at >he Institution of ( ivil I ngineers, bj Dr. W. C. Unwin, 

 v . K.a., chairman of Section II. 



