viii hitroduction. 



are also due for the interest and sympathy they displayed 

 towards the expeditions and for their assistance in helping to 

 raise funds to carry on the work in the field. 



In various numbers of ' Country Life,' issued between the 

 26th of March, 1910, and the 27th of May, 1911, a series of 

 eleven articles will be found in which I contributed a general 

 account of New Guinea, and mentioned some of the more 

 important discoveries made by the members of the B. O. U. 

 Expedition during their attempts to penetrate to the Snow 

 Mountains. A general account of the ornithological results 

 of that expedition, which entered the country via the Mimika 

 River, forms Appendix A to Mr. A. F. H. Wollaston's book, 

 'Pygmies and Papuans' (1912), and was republished in 

 ' The Ibis,' 1913, pp. 76-113. 



As Mr. Wollaston's book, the official account of the 

 •expedition, explains, the great physical difficulties of this 

 hitherto unexplored part of New Guinea and other unforeseen 

 circumstances rendered the work of the B. 0. U. Expedition 

 quite exceptionally arduous ; and if the results of their 

 exploration were not all that had been hoped, it must be 

 remembered that they did all that was humanly possible to 

 carry out the dangerous task with which they had been 

 entrusted. Their work has added vastly to our knowledge 

 of this part of New Guinea, and though little collecting was 

 done above 4000 ft., quite a number of new, and in many 

 cases, remarkably interesting forms were obtained. 



The death of Mr. Wilfred Stalker at an early period ( f 

 the expedition was a sad misfortune, and his services could 

 ill be spared ; his place was, however, very ably filled by 

 Mr. Claude H. B. Grant, who arrived in New Guinea some 

 six months later. 



The second expedition, under Mr. A. F. R. Wollaston, 

 included Mr. C. Boden Kloss, an engineer, five trained Dyak 

 collectors, and seventy-four Dyak carriers ; the escort, 

 provided by the Dutch Government, numbered one hundred 

 and thirty men under the command of Lieut. Van de Water. 



They entered New Guinea by way of the Utakwa and 

 Setakwa Rivers and met with complete success, reaching the 



