113 [Vol. xxv. 



explore the Snow Mountains of Dutch New Guinea. He 

 said that the Committee had been able to enter into an 

 arrangement with c Country Life ' by which the latter 

 obtained the rights of publishing all information received 

 while the Expedition remained in the field. 



Mr. Ogilvie-Grant said that the series of three articles 

 which he had written for ' Country Life ' described the 

 movements of the Expedition up to the 20th of January. 

 Since that date he had received several letters from 

 Mr. Goodfellow and from other members of the Expedition, 

 describing the great difficulties of transport in Dutch New 

 Guinea. The whole country from the coast to the foot of 

 the mountains was perfectly flat, covered with dense jungle 

 and impassable swamps, which rendered overland travel 

 impossible. The Mimika River was therefore the only 

 means of proceeding inland, and in the absence of a launch 

 or boats, a fleet of native canoes had to be chartered and 

 provisioned. In these several members of the Expedition 

 journeyed for seven days up stream, finally reaching a place 

 called Toupoue, close to the base of the mountains, where 

 they found the natives extremely friendly ; here a camp was 

 formed and storehouses were constructed to contain large 

 supplies of provisions. The matter of transport had proved 

 extremely difficult. Little or no help could be got from the 

 natives, and the Amboinese eoolieswho had been imported 

 refused to remain with the Expedition when their term of 

 agreement had expired. Mr. Goodfellow had now secured 

 the services of 48 picked Boutonese coolies from the island 

 of Banda, and with these he hoped that the Expedition would 

 be able to move rapidly forward. 



The Dutch had now supplied a much-needed launch 

 for use on the Mimika River, and by this means stores 

 would be transferred from the base camp at Wakatimi to 

 Toupoue with little loss of time. 



The Committee had decided to send out Mr. Claude Grant 

 to take the place of the late Mr. W. Stalker; he would leave 

 England in the P. & O. SS. 'Nubia' on the 18th of June, 

 and hoped to join the Expedition in the middle of August. 

 Mr. H. C. Robinson had most generously offered to supply 



