BREAKING THE GROUND 
yet by any means had his last word upon it. Reach- 
ing Port Moresby by a reversal of the same route, we 
returned once more to Yule Island, and struck inland 
by way of Mekeo and Epa to Ekeikei, where we built 
our second and most elaborate camp, which served us 
as the base for our furthest journey to Mount Kebea, 
and thence inland by way of Googoolee, Cooloo-coolu, 
Babooni, Amana, Foula, and Avola, to Mafalu, our 
highest point. 
It may be worth while noting that as soon as we 
had passed Bioto Creek on the Ethel River, existing 
maps ceased to be of use to us, and with the exception 
of a few vaguely indicated mountains, presented a com- 
plete blank. Such outlines of topography as we have 
filled in give in every case the native name of the 
place. The fashion of rechristening localities, although 
often complimentary to European explorers and their 
friends, pastors, masters, and disciples, and probably 
commemorative of a discovery, seems to me always to 
sever an interesting link with the country under exami- 
nation. For this reason I prefer the melodious native 
name Papua to its western supplanter New Guinea. 
Our chief movements inland may comprehensively 
be taken to lie within a region bounded by a radius 
of 50 miles around Delana on Hall Sound. On enter- 
ing the unexplored region we found ourselves at first 
in a flat, swampy country, intersected by a few tiny 
creeks, some not more than two feet wide, running 
through grass. We next passed the eucalyptus belt 
and then came the forest proper, in which the trees 
were at first set in isolated patches. Undergrowth 
there was, but it did not attain any density, and at 
26 
