Ecology of Indonesian Papua Part One. Andrew J. Marshall
a popular book, Jungle Islands (1930), as well as scientific reports by Herre and others (mainly in the Field Museum’s zoological series).
The 1930s would be marked by five large expeditions, three from the United States and two from the Netherlands (and East Indies). Those from the United States—the so-called Archbold Expeditions—were organized through the American Museum of Natural History, New York, and personally financed and led by a Standard Oil heir, Richard Archbold. An associate in mammalogy at the Museum and an amateur pilot, Archbold was accompanied by a small cadre of experienced scientist-collectors, particularly the zoologist Austin L. Rand and the botanist Leonard J. Brass. These expeditions—each of them over a year long and progressively more ambitious—were organized so as to encompass substantial altitudinal tran-sects in different areas, each thought to be imperfectly known as well as potentially accessible. Amphibious planes were used for the second and third expeditions—though (alas!) there was a serious accident during the second, when in Fairfax Harbor (Port Moresby) a sudden wind flipped over the expedition’s craft while it was at anchor and it sank, forcing a change of plans. The many places visited are well described (and mapped) in general reports by the team in the Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History (with Brass playing a considerable role in drawing them up). The second expedition was also the subject of a popular book, New Guinea Expedition (1940). Their aerial exploits and achievements have been well described in Souter (1963; see section on References, below) and elsewhere. At the American Museum of Natural History, the undertaking was granted unitary status as "Archbold Expeditions"; through it were coordinated the expeditions’ scientific results. A separate series of reports comparable to Nova Guinea was, however, eschewed in favor of established serials; but individual papers generally bore a subtitle "Results of the Archbold Expeditions." Zoological papers—many substantial—were mainly published in the Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, while the botanical appeared in Journal of the Arnold Arboretum, Brittonia, the later installments of Lauterbach and Diels’s series Beiträge zur Flora von Papuasien, and elsewhere.
The First Archbold Expedition (March 1933–March 1934) was, by its own admission, something of a "trial horse," sticking to relatively established means of land and water access. Accompanying Archbold were Rand (birds and other animals; AMNH) and Brass (plants, NY with duplicates elsewhere). The First Arch-bold Expedition worked a complete altitudinal transect from the south coast to the top of the Wharton Range in the western Owen Stanley Mountains. Here, access was facilitated by the already-mentioned Sacred Heart track to Ononge (south of modern Woitape), thence overland to Murray Pass. Stations towards Ononge included Kubuna, Dieni, Mafulu (1,200 m), and Mt Tafa (2,400 m); beyond there—towards Mt Albert Edward and the Neon Basin, the ultimate objectives—camps were made at Urunu, Ero Creek, and Gerenda (this last below the summit area). After its return from the mountains the expedition visited Yule Island en route to Port Moresby for Christmas. Its last foray (from January 1934) was by boat to Kikori, Daru, and the Binaturi and Oriomo rivers (including collecting stations at Wuroi and Dogwa), with also a first visit to the low Oriomo Plateau (northwest of Daru).
The thirteen-month Second Archbold Expedition to New Guinea (February 1936–March 1937) was centered in the Fly River basin, including the Fly River itself, its upper tributaries the Palmer and Black rivers, and parts of the Strickland River as well as some of the lakes (notably Daviumbu Lake and Murray Lake). Access to the area had improved as a result of oil and mineral prospecting activities, with Oroville Camp (now Kiunga) a potentially useful staging point for the principal objective, exploration of the Hindenburg limestone range between the Fly River and the upper Sepik River. In addition to a ketch, the expedition also had a plane (used particularly out of Daru); but, on 9 July, the plane was—as already mentioned—wrecked at Port Moresby. The just-initiated mountain work therefore had to be abandoned. Instead the party, after much work in the middle Fly, spent its final three months in extensive exploration of the so-called Trans-Fly region (between the lower Fly River and the Torres Straits and up to the international border). In addition to Archbold, Rand, and Brass, an American Museum mammologist, G. H. H. Tate (who would return on post–World War II Archbold Expeditions) was also in the party (animals, AMNH; plants, Harvard University Herbaria with duplicates elsewhere). Collecting stations include Rona (or Rouna) near Port Moresby, Daru, Mabaduan (notable for a granite outcrop geologically homologous with those in the Cape York Peninsula of Australia), Everill Junction, Oroville Camp, Palmer River (one month), Black River (two months), Lake Daviumbu (one month), Sturt Island (one month), Gaima, and (in the Trans-Fly) along the channels of the Wassi and Mai Kussa River, calling at Penzara, Tumbuke, and, in particular, Tarara; finally, Daru was once more visited.
The Third Archbold Expedition (also known as the Netherlands Indies-American Expedition), of thirteen months’ duration (April 1938–May 1939), was carried out jointly with Dutch interests. Working with Archbold, Rand, and Brass were entomologists L. J. Toxopeus and J. Olthof, another zoologist, W. B. Richardson, and forest botanists E. Meijer Drees and C. Versteegh. The expedition traversed in particular the Nassau Range from Mt Wilhelmina (now Mt Trikora) to the Lake Plain, partly by boat and land but mainly in a new amphibious plane, the Guba (one of two prototype PBYs, later the famous "Catalina" class of World War II and beyond). After fieldwork in the vicinity of Hollandia (now Jayapura) and the Cyclops Mts, a first mountain camp was established at Lake Habbema (3,225 m), with the Guba successfully landing and taking off from the water—then a new altitudinal record for a seaplane. From there camps were established at Letterbox (3,560 m) and Scree Valley (3,800 m), the latter near the summit of Mt Wilhelmina (now Mt Trikora). The expedition then worked its way northwards, with collecting stations at Moss Forest (upper Bele Valley, 2,800 m), Bele (2,200 m), and Baliem (1,600 m), the latter in the Grand Valley—a new "discovery," of which parts were explored by the team. Then followed a detailed examination of the central-eastern part of the Nassau Range, with stations at Top (2,150 m), Mist (1,800 m), Sigi (1,500 m), Rattan (1,200 m), Araucaria (800 m), and, by the Idenburg (now Taritatu) River, Bernhard Camp (50 m), the last named in honor of Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands. Very extensive collections were amassed, including over 5,500 numbers of plants obtained by Brass, Meijer-Drees, and Versteegh (vertebrates at AMNH; insects at Leiden after processing at Bogor; plants in the Harvard University Herbaria with many duplicates in Bogor and elsewhere). Apart from its great geographical discovery, the expedition was the first to recognize the presence of Nothofagus in New Guinea—although specimens had been collected earlier, they initially were not correctly identified.
The substantial Dutch representation in this expedition was a reflection not only of pride but also a return of better economic conditions in the Netherlands Indies. Already the Dutch had resumed exploration (and resource investigation) in their own right, a notable goal being to "fill in" the remaining "white spaces" on the map—clearly evident to the world when Klein’s Nieuw-Guinée appeared. The use of radio and aircraft became standard, as elsewhere, and aerial photography was also strongly promoted.
In 1936 A. H. Colijn, with J. J. Dozy and pilot F. J. Wissel, made a largely successful general survey of the Carstensz Mts complex (now Mt Jaya), reaching the top of Ngga Pulu (dense fog obscuring the Carstensz Pyramid), although much would remain for Harrer and Temple in 1961–1962. A valuable small plant collection was secured by Wissel (Leiden, Bogor). In 1938 Wissel made another discovery: the three Wissel (now Paniai) Lakes. The following year an aerially supplied government station, Enarotali, was opened; this inspired two more large expeditions even while the Third Archbold was in the field.
The Royal Netherlands Geographical Society’s "Le Roux" Expedition of 1939, led by Stirling Expedition veteran C. C. F. M. le Roux with zoologist Prof. H. Boschma, collected insects and other animals in the Nassau Mts, Wissel (now Paniai) Lakes, and Etna Bay (Leiden). For at least part of the time they were accompanied by botanist P. J. Eyma and his assistant, E. Loupattij, who—over nearly a year (December 1938–November 1939, partly on their own account)—made extensive plant collections throughout the area (Bogor, Leiden; parts of the field data were, however, lost). Afterwards, explorer and controleur J. P. K. van Eechoud—one of two "Bapa Papua" (papa Papua)—collected birds, insects, and other animals during 1939–1940 in the Wissel (now Paniai) Lakes area as well as in the Mamberamo basin and the Van Rees Mts (Leiden).
ZOOLOGY AND ENTOMOLOGY
Reference has already been made to the major expeditions