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1959 C. H. B. GRANT : NEW GUINEA EXPEDITION 65

THE EXPEDITION OF THE BRITISH ORNITHOLOGISTS’ UNION TO

NEW GUINEA, 1909-191 1

c. H. B. GR4NT*

The expedition was to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the forming of the
British Ornithologists’ Union and was conceived by W. R. Ogilvie-Grant, of the Bird
Room, Oldfield-Thomas, of the Mammal Section, and C. E. Fagan, Secretary, British
Museum (Natural History), the wonderful trio who hatched so many plots to increase
thc National Collection. The proposal was approved by the members of the British
Ornithologists’ Union. A total sum of just over A9000 was raised for this expedition,
of which L4000 was contributed by the Government. The balance left over from the
1909-1911 Expedition allowed Wollaston and Kloss to reach the snows via the Utakwa
River in 1913.
The party that landed in New Guinea on 4 January 1910 was W. Goodfellow, G. C.
Shortridge, W. Stalker, A. F. R. Wollaston, C. G. Rawling and E. Marshall. The base
camp was at Wakatimi, a few miles up the Mimika River, a rather foul muddy unpleasant
place for a camp. However, it was apparently the first dry spot to be found along the
river. Misfortune dogged their footsteps from the start, for on 9 January 1910, Stalker,
who had gone out with a -410 gun into the surrounding bush, lost himself and was found
dead the next day by a Papuan in a muddy creek less than a mile from the camp. His
body was brought back by canoe, but the .410 was never recovered.
On 16 January Goodfellow, Shortridge and Rawling proceeded up river in canoes
that had been purchased from the local natives, and reached Parimau, some forty miles
from Wakatimi, a camp which was established on 4 March. Wollaston and Rawling
travelled a short way into the first foothills and there met the pygmies for the first time.
By June they had proceeded no further, for the simple reason that the headwaters of the
Mimika River were only some five miles inside the steeply-ridged foothills and were,
as the crow flies, some thirty to forty miles to the main snow-covered mountains of
Idenburg and Carstenz, with innumerable canyons and incredibly steep ridges between.
When I returned to the Tigre Yacht Club, Buenos Aires, from a trip in a five-ton
l’hames launch with Geoffrey Tudor up the Paraguay River to Corumba, I found a
telegram from Ogilvie-Grant asking me to replace Stalker on the expedition. I sent
a wire in the affirmative, took boat to England, and within three weeks of arrival had
sailed in a P. & 0. boat for Singapore. At Singapore I embarked on a Dutch boat
for the Aru Islands, and arrived in New Guinea in August 1910, eight months after the
first landing, having crossed from the Aru Islands in the Dutch gunboat ‘ Falk ’.
I met Shortridge at the Aru Islands on his return from Australia, where he had becn
recuperating, and he told me there had been some friction between Goodfellow and the
Survey party, no doubt partially caused by the latter being frustrated in the hope of
reaching the snow-covered ranges. Before my arrival the rivers west and east of the
Mimika had becn traversed by one or other members in an endeavour to find one that
came from the sno\vs, but they werc stopped eventually by shallows or rapids.
In ILlarch 1910 Rawling and Wollaston had reached (from the Kapare River, west
of Mimika) the cultivated clearing made by the pygmies by a cross-country trek of some
sis hours, cutting their way through the jungle and climbing up the steep sides of the
knife-like ridges of the hills. In October 1910 I moved from Parimau to the Kapare,
* T h e author, who is understood to have been the last survivor of the expedition, completed this
contribution a few weeks before his death in January 1958. His photograph, reproduced in Plate 5,
lvas taken in the course of the expedition.

VOL. 101 F
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66 C. H. B. GRANT : NEW GUINEA EXPEDITION IBIS101

camping at the junction of this river where it debouched from the hills with a clear
stream which I named White Water ’. I was there for about two months, my intention
being not only to collect different species, but to find and visit the pygmy village which
was found to be situated about a mile from the cultivated clearing. I felt that the village
would not be near the clearing-and so it proved. I was the first white man to visit
this village, Rawling and Marshall visited me in November 1910 and I took them up
to the village. In March 1911, after I had returned to the coast, Wollaston and Marshall
paid one brief visit to it hoping to see the women and children, but were disappointed,
as I felt sure they would be.
The porters having dumped my baggage at the ‘ White Water ’ returned to Parimau,
and the Ghurka and I decided to pitch camp on an open stony space at the mouth of
the ‘White Water’ and make a clearing in the forest on slightly higher ground the
following morning. We had everything nicely arranged when about four o’clock in
the afternoon a curious rumbling was heard away up the gorges of the Kapare River and
I noticed that the water was rising. It rose so rapidly that we had only enough time to
strike camp and rush everything into the forest. In fact some of the stuff was rescued
as it floated away. Then the rain started, as it always did once in the twenty-four hours,
and the noise of the rising river and the tropical rain on the forest canopy was terrific.
We then had to set to work cutting down trees and clearing undergrowth to make and
re-set the camp, everything by this time being soaked. By marking a rock that stood in
the Kapare I found that this river rose some twelve feet every afternoon, which showed
that it came from some of the higher snow-covered mountains about seventeen miles to
the north through some of the most impassable and difficult mountain country that could
be imagined. Every day we climbed up the steep ridges and on the highest point
climbed trees and, although we could see the clearing on one side or the other we were
unable to find the track leading to it. The sides were so steep and the actual ridge so
sharp that it was devoid of trees, and we mistook this for native paths.
One day I was sitting on the topmost point of a ridge while the Ghurka was up a
tree locating the direction of the clearing, and sensing something looked round to find
two pygmies standing behind me. They could easily have killed me and they had the
Ghurka tree’d, but such was clearly not their intention, and I named them “the Friendlies”
as they were the first I had seen. I gave them to understand we were looking for the
track to their village and, saying what was no doubt the equivalent to O.K. in their
language, we retraced our steps to my camp where a well-worn path came down to the
river, but I could find no sign of it on the other bank. From my camp we entered the
‘White Water’ stream and wading up the middle, in places near breast-high, for some half
a mile, we came on the continuation of the footpath on the opposite bank, a cunning
and very clever device to deceive the unwarlted visitor.
We climbed up, over, and across the steep ridges and valleys and in one place the
track was a natural hanging mat of vegetation where the mountain side had long since
fallen away. But dusk was coming on and we did not know how far we had to go to
reach the village-for that was where I hoped the two pygmies were taking us. So we
made them understand by pointing to the sun and by other signs that we must return
or otherwise be benighted and that we would return the next day. They bade us farewell
and we parted. Early next morning the Ghurka and I were away and, passing the
point where we had parted with the two pygmies the evening before, soon came to a
small flat clearing, and there sat an old pygmy and stuck in the middle of the clearing
was a long stick decorated its whole length with white cockatoo feathers. The “ white
flag ”, or what have you, was surely a sign of peace and welcome. After greetings
and a smoke we followed this old man to the village where all the men awaited us ; they
showed us over their huts (including interiors) raised on piles. But there were no women
or children.
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1959 C. H. B. GRANT :NEW GUINEA EXPEDITION 67

We exchanged many visits to their camp, and they to my camp, and we became very
friendly. They examined with great interest the tents, beds, and everything else, and
although my camp was frequently left unattended from sunrise to sundown they did not
steal or interfere with anything.
After some time they allowed me to photograph them and take measurements of the
twenty-four men that appeared to comprise the total male population. One of them
had a dog which he treated as a great pet. They seemed particularly interested in
watching me skin birds and make them up. I hoped on better acquaintance to see some
women or children in the village. I think I saw some women running into the forest from
the cultivated clearing which was clearly seen across the valley to the left of our meeting
place and, if so, they appeared to be naked. After much thought I decided I would go
straight on to the village in the hope that the women and children might be there, but
when the Ghurka and I walked in, the place was deserted. I leaned my .410 against a
banana-plant and we sat down on a log and waited, I could hear the pygmies working
in the clearing-chopping wood or trees, and I gave a yell or so to let them know where
I was. The noise of working suddenly ceased and in a short time practically all the
men came running in single file with arrows strung in their bows and lined up in front
of us talking in an excited way with the full strung arrows pointed at us. It was lucky
no women were seen for no doubt they would have let out a screech and bolted like
rabbits into the forest. It was clear that I had done a very foolish thing and that the
pygmies thought I had come specially to steal their women and, for a few tense moments,
it would appear that the Ghurka and I would be stuck as full of arrows as a porcupine
of quills. The Ghurka put his hand on his rifle but I told him to leave it alone as
although he might get one or two of them they would bolt for the forest and undoubtedly
scupper us on the road back. I did my best to try and explain that we had stopped at
the meeting place and that the pygmies had failed to hear me when I called and that
my intentions in going on to the village were quite honourable ! The tension was
acute when one of the pygmies saw the -410 leaning against the banana-tree and signed
vigorously to me to remove it-which I did-then went back and sat down again.
No doubt he considered the gun would bewitch the plant or go off on its own and kill
or hurt someone. This miraculously ended the tension, bows were relaxed, arrows
removed, and tobacco and beads were distributed all round. Curiously I did not think
it was my last few minutes on earth-I never have in such circumstances-but the
Ghurka afterwards said he thought his end was very near and did not fancy barbed
arrows stuck in his body.
I never allowed the pygmies to see me load my gun and when, as always, they ran
to pick up a bird and examine it carefully all over to see what had killed it, I re-loaded
and placed the empty cases in my pocket. It certainly had them fascinated to see me
point the gun at some bird, hear a small bang, and the bird fall dead.
Insect-life was appalling, no sooner one species went to bed another arose to annoy,
throughout the twenty-four hours. A sort of bluebottle fought with you for your food
and even tried to follow it down your throat. Big brown leeches were everywhere-in
the trees and on the forest floor.
Our dress was a khaki coat, a vest, khaki slacks, socks, canvas leggings and canvas
boots, and one was wet all day with both sweat and crossing inumerable streams, large
and small. There was no hope of drying anything as one had to take one’s clothes to bed
to hide them from the bluebottles which laid eggs in them and the warmth of
one’s body soon hatched out a horde of irritating maggots. However, it was
warm and the putting on of a wet vest and slacks was no hardship. Canvas boots
which I bought in Singapore for seven and six a pair were ideal, for the water ran in and
out of them and dried quickly when crossing drier country, and so saved the feet from
getting sore.
F2
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68 C. H. B. GRANT :NEW GUINEA EXPEDITION IBIS101

After the rather sombre swampy forest of the plains where so many of the tallest
trees were buttressed and had very shallow roots, and where usually the sun was only
seen in the open spaces of the streams and rivers, the mountains were like fairyland, drier
underfoot, the trunks of all trees clothed in moss, and the branches festooned with greyish
lichen. When the trees were grasped to help one up the steep slopes the moss was
found to be full of water and cascaded from the hand all down the side of the body.
I n the spaces formed by the buttresses of the trees in the plains I several times found
cassowary eggs, but owing to the insect-life it was quite impossible to sit quietly and out
of the question to wait for the return of the birds, as no doubt they were not far away and
would spot the slightest movement. I did once see a cassowary out on the shingle of a
riverbank, at least a quarter of a mile away, and the moment I stepped out of the forest
it saw me and dashed into the forest.
The Papuans paddle their canoes standing up, nearly always from the bows. I was
at Parimau when one came down the river with a man in the bows and his wife sitting
in the back, she was haranguing him in a loud and angry voice and, without turning to
look back he swung the paddle round and knocked her flat-and for as long as the canoe
was in sight there was silence and the lady did not even pop up her head ! One stroke
in the water, one to the woman, and the next in the water again, without breaking his
rhythm.
The Expedition obtained nearly 4000 specimens of birds, of which twenty-five were
then new, including the mountain cassowary which Ogilvie-Grant named after me.
It was a piece of luck my obtaining this bird when the Ghurka and I were out hunting
in the hills of the Iwaka River. The Ghurka was above me and out of sight, and I was
half way across an open scree of fallen rocks, stepping from rock to rock, when the
Ghurka yelled out and I stood stock still not knowing what he had seen. Out of the
forest from his direction came a cassowary running from rock to rock at a fair speed and
in my direction. I made no movement whatsoever, and it did not notice me and, as it
was passing at some five yards distance I hit it with dust-shot from my -410 right through
the neck, cutting a hole like that of a bullet, and it dropped dead. I went to where the
Ghurka had flushed it and we hunted around in the hope that it had eggs, but we were
unsuccessful. No other cassowary was seen in the mountains and they must be extra-
ordinarily wary birds.
Only some 250 mammals were obtained on the expedition, they seemed scarce every-
where, and among those I shot was a cuscus asleep in a tree. I saw what appeared
to be a round yellowish fungus, I looked at it for a long time when it struck me that it
was rather a curious place for so large a fungus, so I took a shot at it and to my great
surprise it tumbled down, and when I went to see what it was, I found it was not a
fungus at all, but a cuscus which had been sound asleep curled up like a ball.
Looking back, it might have been better had the whole expedition been withdrawn
to the Aru Islands when it was clear within the first few months that the Mimika and other
rivers partially explored did not come from the snow mountains, especially as the bulk
of the stores and equipment were still at Wakatimi, only about seven to eight miles from
the sea. The whole could have been transported and restarted on the Utakwa River,
instead of attempting to cut tracks to the eastwards from one river to another across
thickly timbered and difficult country and innumerable water-courses which, in the end,
got us no nearer our goal.* This cross-country work meant working out the food
supplies, as the porters carrying the stores could only leave at a forward dump a small
part of their rations, they having to carry their own rations for both the outward and
return trip. This naturally involved a great waste of time before another step forward could
be taken. I do not say that any other method was possible with porters only, but it did
* In Januaryand February 1913, Wollaston and Kloss, in company with Lieut. Van der Water,
did reach the snows, via the Utakwa River, and collected some 1300 specimens of birds.
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1959 C. H. B. GRANT : NEW GUINEA EXPEDITION 69

seem that valuable days, weeks, and months had been, and were, slipping away without
any real progress being achieved. Present-day exploring is much easier as the country
ahead can be seen from the air and a route mapped out accordingly, but it is not exploring
in the true sense of the word, for it lacks the excitement of the unknown.
It was not known whether Jungle Fowl would be seen, and the first time I saw the
Pheasant Pigeon Qtidiphups nobilis, running along the forest floor with its tail up like a
bantam, I said to myself " there goes a Jungle Fowl " and shot it, only to find it was not
a chicken. Various small bright-coloured pigeons were among the commonest of the
birds secn, but they were nearly always in the tops of the high trees which made it
difficult to distinguish the species; in consequence many more were shot than was neces-
sary, but they did make a dish of sorts to vary the menu.
During one of the periods when practically every one of our porters had fallen sick
and had been sent back home, Marshall and I were at Parimau together, Rawling and
Wollaston having gone to the coast, the N.C.O. in charge of the Javanese escort brought
into our part of the camp two Javanese who had stabbed each other in a quarrel. One
was clearly out but the other was alive, so they propped up his naked body on the grass
seats at the table where our breakfast was being served-starting with plates of porridge.
I held up the wounded man whilst Marshall went for dressings. Suddenly the blood
gushed out of the wound all over everything, including the plates of porridge and I
quickly placed my hand over the wound to stay the spurting blood. Unfortunately,
by the time Marshall returned with the dressings the man was dead.
The Papuans hang the skulls of the family dead in their dwellings and Wollaston,
considering that one at least should be procured for the Museum, took a likely seller in
a quiet corner and discussed the matter with him by sign language and offered him an
axe, beads, etc. He came back soon afterwards with a skull and proudly showed us the
result of his diplomatic transaction. The man returned to the village and no doubt
showed them the big price he had obtained, for almost immediately there was much
activity to be seen, men going from their dwellings to their canoes and finally the whole
fleet crossed the river and every man had a skull in his hand for sale. The price slumped
badly and the bottom fell out of the skull market in a matter of minutes.
Goodfellow left us in October 1910, owing to ill-health, and Shortridge in December
1910 for the same reason, leaving only Wollaston, Rawling, Marshall and myself. Rawl-
ing was appointed leader in place of Goodfellow, and for the last three months the survey
was placed foremost, though this did not greatly interfere with my part of the work (the
collecting of birds and mammals) as the surveyors only reached a point some six to seven
miles east of where I was camped on the Iwaka River. In the foothills and mountains
bird-life seemed to be scarcer than in the lowlands. Perhaps the most plentiful bird
seen was the King Bird of Paradise, and whenever one examined carefully some dull-
coloured bird creeping about in the thick vegetation, before wasting a cartridge on a
species which had already been collected and then deciding that it was something new,
it was always found to be either a female or young male of this bird of paradise. The
most beautiful birds were undoubtedly the Crowned Pigeons as they walked about on
the forest floor. We shot quite a few as they were good eating. Frequently from a
distance full-plumaged birds of paradise could be seen on some horizontal branch, but
when approached within shot the intervening forest blotted them out and they could
only be heard somewhere overhead.
In March 1911 Rawling and I moved down river to the coast for the last time, and
I camped at the mouth of the Mimika River whilst Rawling did some surveying. Except
for the insects night and day it was quite pleasant on the wide sands and being by the
sea. I added several species to the collection, mainly shore-birds and the fine black-and-
white Nutmeg Pigeon which was plentiful in the casuarina trees along the edge of the
sand and the swampy forest ; they made excellent meals.
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70 C. H. B. GRANT : NEW GUINEA EXPEDITION IBIS101

About the end of March, the Dutch gunboat ' Falk ' and a Dutch cruiser appeared
offthe coast to take us away, and I can still see Kloss walking about a mile over the sands
to my camp to see me. Rawling, Wollaston and Marshall, and all the remaining native
personnel, escort troops, stores and specimens went aboard the cruiser, but I remained
behind and went aboard the gunboat at the request of the skipper. I had the most
enjoyable trip in the ' Falk ' as she was on a round of inspection of the Dutch East Indies,
and I visited all the islands and was treated " right royally " by the officers-in-charge
of each place we called at. The skipper was also a charming and entertaining host and
I regret I never saw him again. I eventually arrived at Singapore to find the rest of the
party still awaiting a ship, and I fear they were not too pleased when I told them where
I had been.
Except perhaps for Marshall, I am the last survivor of this expeditisn. Marshall,
I believe, went to Kenya Colony, since when I have had no news of him. The others,
I know, are all dead, Rawling in the 1914-18 war, Wollaston 1930, Kloss and Shortridge
1949, and Goodfellow 1953. It is almost half a century since those days in New Guinea
and memories fade, although my photographs help to bring them back, and the remember-
ing of one incident begets another and an almost forgotten story slowly unfolds and
comes to life again.

Nom.-The report on the birds collected in the course of the B.O.U. New Guinea Expedition,
by W. R. Ogilvie-Grant, eventually appeared in 1915, as Jubilee Supplement No. 2 to the ' Ibis ',-
ED.