Adventures in New Guinea James Chalmers
Adventures in New Guinea James Chalmers
Adventures in New Guinea James Chalmers
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teeth, hold with one hand, and with a bamboo knife cut close to the<br />
mouth. A bird is turned on the fire a few times, then cut up and eaten.<br />
_August_ 1_st_.--Left this morn<strong>in</strong>g to look for a track. We passed<br />
through a f<strong>in</strong>e large village about one mile from here, and were jo<strong>in</strong>ed by<br />
sixty men, all armed with spears and clubs, and faces pa<strong>in</strong>ted. They<br />
accompanied us for about four miles, and then turned away to the south.<br />
We cont<strong>in</strong>ued on the ridge for some miles further, until we could see that<br />
all round were great <strong>in</strong>accessible mounta<strong>in</strong>s with bare faces. It beg<strong>in</strong>s<br />
with the Astrolabe, extend<strong>in</strong>g west until Vetura is reached, and then away<br />
east by south until the centre of the range is reached. In some places<br />
it has a perpendicular rock face of many hundred feet; <strong>in</strong> other places it<br />
is broken rock with bush growth, and only at very long distances can<br />
tracks be found, and even then it is difficult to get up. We descended<br />
to the river, a large one, flow<strong>in</strong>g west, through great rocks, often lost,<br />
sometimes only pools appear<strong>in</strong>g here and there until, some distance down,<br />
and when eight hundred feet above sea-level, it comes out a f<strong>in</strong>e and<br />
flow<strong>in</strong>g river. We had a good bath, and, of course, the <strong>in</strong>evitable<br />
_kuku_, and then skirted the side of the ridge, pass<strong>in</strong>g close by and<br />
under great rocks and overhang<strong>in</strong>g cliffs, and up a most extraord<strong>in</strong>ary<br />
steep path <strong>in</strong>to splendid sugar-cane and taro plantations. Weary, we sat<br />
down and ate sugar-cane under the shade of a great rock. This West<br />
Indian "long breakfast" goes well when thirsty and hungry. The natives<br />
who accompanied us, hav<strong>in</strong>g caught a large rat and frog, turned them on<br />
the fire and ate them.<br />
A truly wonderful country! What terrible convulsions of nature there<br />
must have been here ere these great boulders were displaced and rolled<br />
about like mere pebbles! The villages are so built that they are<br />
accessible only on two sides by very narrow tracks. We saw no game of<br />
any k<strong>in</strong>d, yet the cassowary must abound somewhere near, as every one of