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New Guinea in search of Paradise-birds. 
Landing at Port Moresby, the seat of the Papuan Govern¬ 
ment, on February 28th, we had to wait for ten days before we 
could proceed to Yule Island, whence we proposed to enter the 
interior; and during this enforced halt we were daily engaged 
in getting together “ trade” for the natives, and in endeavour¬ 
ing to persuade one or two “ boys ” to join us as interpreters 
and servants. This we found no easy matter. We would 
interview a certain number, and all arrangements would 
appear to be advancing satisfactorily until our destination was 
mentioned. Then the excuses came out. One had married 
a wife, another was busy in collecting a debt, and there 
were other antiquated and annoying reasons which we found 
it very difficult to overcome. It had so happened that 
some months previous to our arrival a native policeman had 
been killed and eaten somewhere in the vicinity of Mt. Yule, 
toward which our proposed route stretched, though miles 
away from the mountain itself. Our would-be guides and 
interpreters unanimously declined to take any commercial 
risks with their heads. Eventually we “ signed on ” three 
youths for a six months’ engagement, and straightway 
started them off into the bush to see what they could 
accomplish as entomologists. The results were poor, and 
the next day we f< signed off” one who was partially blind. 
Before leaving Yule Island we had to discharge a second 
boy, as the police there gave him so many harrowing 
accounts of carriers who had disappeared mysteriously for 
ever, added to other stories of a gruesome nature, that 
an annoying attack of “funk” rendered him useless in 
any capacity. Port Moresby lies inside a land-locked bay, 
the entrance to which is difficult on account of numerous 
reefs, while behind the town high and magnificent ranges 
and spurs of the Owen-Stanley Mountains stretch for miles 
parallel to the coast. Along the shore the foot-hills are 
clothed in dense vegetation, occasional open patches reveal¬ 
ing undulating slopes vivid with rank green grass. Large 
masses of misty clouds frequently divide the inland ridges 
and completely conceal the summits of many a lofty peak. 
The white residents at Port Moresby number about seventv. 
