Ecology of Indonesian Papua Part One. Andrew J. Marshall
and shells; BMNH and Cambridge University, England); H. Kuhn in 1884 on the Onin Peninsula including Sekar (near Kokas) on the McCluer Gulf (now Bintuni Bay) (birds and other groups); H. Fruhstorfer in 1891 in the Vogelkop Peninsula (Takar, etc.) and elsewhere (including Lepidoptera; Berlin); and W. Doherty in 1892–1893 in many areas of the Vogelkop Peninsula, around Cenderawasih Bay (including Yapen Island) and on Humboldt Bay (birds and insects, the former at AMNH and the latter at BMNH). A collection of various animals from the Charles-Louis Range at the western end of the Central Cordillera—apparently one of the earliest such visits—was made through Renesse van Duivenbode and reached BMNH in 1898. In 1899 a Eurasian professional collector, J. M. Dumas, collected birds at Mt Moari on the Vogelkop Peninsula (Tring/AMNH), beginning an association with New Guinea which would last until 1911. In the latter part of the year the Raja Ampat Islands and a few points on the mainland (one of them near Fakfak) were visited by the Siboga oceanographic expedition (further mentioned below). In the new century J. Waterstradt in 1902–1903 visited Waigeo (birds, Copenhagen and Tring/AMNH), while the Pratts (see above) were at Merauke for a short time in 1902 collecting Lepidoptera but due to local hostilities (see below) sailed on to the Torres Strait and Port Moresby.
Terrestrial plant collectors were relatively few, both on the mainland and in the major offshore islands; the latter were largely neglected until the new century (and some for decades beyond). After the visits of Moseley and Beccari (with in 1876 a return by Teysmann to the Raja Ampat group), in 1888 Warburg (see above) called at Sekar (near Kokas) in the McCluer Gulf (now Bintuni Bay) during his tour through Papuasia and eastern Australia (phanerogams and cryptogams, Berlin (largely destroyed) with some also elsewhere). In 1893 the director of the Bogor Botanic Garden, M. Treub (with an assistant, Jaheri), briefly called at the Onin Peninsula (and the Aru Islands); and in 1900 these localities were also visited by the American plant explorer D. Fairchild (with an emphasis on living plants). Of plant-hunters for the trade, W. Micholitz (for Sander and Sons in St Albans, England) around 1890 collected orchids in Batanta and elsewhere (Kew), while D. Burke (for Veitch) in 1891 obtained orchids and other plants in the northern Arfak Mountains (Kew).
The principal oceanographic expeditions visiting during and after 1875 were, in that year, the Challenger and Gazelle (for both, see above), and, a quarter-century later, the Siboga. The Challenger sailed along the north coast (including Humboldt Bay) before heading to the Admiralty Islands, Moseley in particular collecting drift objects off the mouth of the Mamberamo. The Gazelle called during June in Mc-Cluer Gulf (now Bintuni Bay), Naumann collecting at Sekar (not far north of the future Fakfak). The year-long Malesian cruise of the Siboga, commanded by G. F. Tydeman and with a scientific corps led by the zoologist M. Weber, called in the latter part of 1899 in several of the Raja Ampat islands as well as at a few mainland points, one of them being Ati-ati Onin (near Fakfak, just established as a government post). A wide range of marine (and some terrestrial) organisms was obtained, the plants (including numerous marine algae) collected by Weber’s wife A. Weber-van Bosse (Leiden, all collections). The expedition’s results appeared—like those of the Challenger—in the grand manner over several decades, Weber-van Bosse’s main work, Liste des Algues du Siboga, appearing in four parts (1913–1928).
The Last Frontier I: Major Expeditions and Surveys (1898–1914)
The arrival of the Siboga in the western waters of New Guinea followed hard upon a change in official Dutch policy towards their easternmost possessions, still largely unexplored. This was provoked by increasing foreign interest and, not unnaturally, by the development of the neighboring British and German territories. On 1 March 1898 what had been a single administrative unit was divided in two, and for the first time official posts were established: Manokwari for the north, Fakfak for the west and south. In early 1902 a third post, at Merauke in the southeast, was set up for the control of armed Marind-Anim (Tugeri) raiders and headhunters—who were also creating disturbances in British New Guinea, then in some turmoil following the cannibalistic murder in 1901 of the now-aging Chalmers (see above). In later years other posts, among them Serui (on Yapen Island) and Hollandia (now Jayapura; on Humboldt Bay), would follow. In the sciences, too, the Dutch realized that serious attention was required, particularly to the extensive interior east of the Bird’s Neck.
The scene was thus set for the series of large-scale wholly or partly government-sponsored expeditions that largely dominated exploration until 1939 (with a "finale" in 1959, filling the "last white spot on the map"). Results of these expeditions were over several decades largely presented in the special serial Nova Guinea (Leiden, 1909–1966), sponsored by the Indies Committee for Scientific Research and other bodies.
The first of these major undertakings was the 1903 North New Guinea Expedition, led by C. F. A. Wichmann, then a geology professor at Utrecht University. Much of its zoological material (Amsterdam) was collected by H. A. Lorentz and L. F. de Beaufort as well as by Dumas (see above). No qualified botanist was in the party, but plants—both living and preserved (Bogor), mainly from the first part of the trip—were collected by the Indonesian officials (mantris) Atasrip and Jaheri from Bogor (Jaheri previously having visited New Guinea with Treub and, in 1901 with the Java, Fakfak, the site of Merauke, and Thursday Island in Torres Strait—there collecting Deplanchea tetraphylla) and, where possible, by Dumas after the Bogor officials’ (mantris) departure. A wide range of mainly coastal localities was visited by Wichmann, ranging (on his own, in January) first from Triton Bay along the Bomberai coast (including the offshore Adi, Karas, and Semai islands) to Fakfak (and McCluer Gulf, now Bintuni Bay), and from there (on the expedition proper, 7 February to August) around Geelvink (now Cenderawasih) Bay and its islands, afterwards rapidly sailing along the north coast to Humboldt Bay and there taking in the Hollandia (now Jayapura)-Sentani area (after which the Indonesian officials (mantris) returned to Java), finally exploring around Tanah Merah Bay and elsewhere before returning west and concluding with an excursion to the Bird’s Neck at the southern end of Geelvink Bay. An extensive general report appeared in 1917 in Nova Guinea; natural history reports were scattered.
Specific localities on the north coast and in Geelvink Bay included Waigeo, Manokwari (on Doré Bay), Mansinam, Karoon, Kwawi, Andai, Wendesi, Tawarin, Bawe, Sageisara, Moso, Napan, Angadi, Jende (on Ron I.), Timena, Orum, Mios Korwar, Supiori Island (just west of Biak), Ansus on Yapen Island, Moso, Metu Debi, Tjintjan Bay, Matterer Bay, Pokembo, Wakobi, Siari, Kwatisore, and Wa Udu and (along the north coast) Moaif and Maffin Bay. Points of interest in the Hollandia (now Jayapura)-Sentani area included (among others) Jotefa Bay, the Cyclops Mountains (ascending into the range in the first two-thirds of April and visiting Mts Pisero, Sinagai, and Pancana among others), and (west of Sentani) the Timena River, Ibaiso, and Jaga. Slightly more distant were Tanah Merah Bay (at the western end of the Cyclops), the Korimé River inland from Moeris, and—just past the German border—Oinaké (near Wutung in present-day Papua New Guinea). South of Hollandia (now Jayapura) they visited the Tami and Sekanto Rivers. In mid-July they returned to Manokwari and the team then explored (via Kwatisore) across the Bird’s Neck, reaching Goreda (on Lake Yamur, not far from Jabi at the very western end of the Central Cordillera). Thence they attempted to push further south before in mid-August but, plagued by mosquitoes, had to abandon their transit and so turn back to the north coast, Manokwari, and "home."
Wichmann’s undertaking was followed in 1904–1905 by the Southwestern New Guinea Expedition, organized under the auspices of the Royal Dutch Geographical Society and led by R. Posthumus Meijes and E. J. de Rochemont. Animals and plants (Bogor, Leiden) were collected by Dr J. W. R. Koch with the aid of Indonesian officials (mantris) from Bogor; Koch, a physician by profession, focused in particular on ethnography. In the second quarter of 1904 (prior to the expedition proper), he made a preliminary reconnaissance from Merauke with the Lombok, taking in the rarely-visited Frederik Hendrik Island (later known as Kolepom Island, now known as Yos Sudarso Island) as well as parts of the southwest coast and its inlets. He then returned to Merauke for some months before arrival of the expedition proper (from September to the following April). The full party (in the Valk) carried out further work along the southwestern coasts, with one side trip to Dobo, Aru Islands, as well as at Merauke and sailed up the lower course of the Digul (partly in sloops). During this time, Koch was left at Etna Bay (west of Uta) for over two months. The main expedition report appeared in 1908, Koch contributing the sections on ethnography and natural history (with assistance from T. Valeton on the plants). During this