Notes

Abstract

WE heartily congratulate Dr. A. F. R. Wollaston on his return from a successful visit to the Ingkipulu Mountains (Nassau range), Netherlands New Guinea. Last year Dr. Wollaston gave an account of the unlucky attempt of the British Ornithologists' Union Expedition in “Pygmies and Papuans,” and quite recently Capt. C. G. Rawling has published another book on the same expedition, “The Land of the New Guinea Pygmies.” On the present occasion Mr. C. B. Kloss, curator of the Kuala Lumpur Museum, accompanied Dr. Wollaston, and, in addition to an engineer and five native collectors, they took with them seventy-five “Dyaks,” and a large escort was provided by the Netherlands Government. Four and a half months were occupied in reaching the mountains from the coast. The geographical results cannot be worked out for some time. Extensive zoological collections were made which comprise many new species; among them is a very beautiful bird of paradise which may be new. A hitherto unknown tribe of a rather short people of Papuan type were met with at an elevation of some 4000-6000 ft. Despite the very cold nights they wear no clothing. They are mainly collectors and hunters, but also grow sweet-potatoes, tobacco, and sugar-cane. They carry bows and arrows and shoulder-bags containing apparatus for making fire, tobacco, knives, spoons, and other small belongings in true Papuan style. Their knives are made of a hard, slaty stone that can be brought to so keen an edge that bamboos can be cut with them. The people are said to be extremely attractive, most friendly, and in some respects more intelligent than the people on the coast. We await with interest Dr. Wollaston's account of his adventurous journeyings, and sympathise with him in the loss of a considerable proportion of his notes due to the capsizing of a canoe.