"By Aeroplane to Pygmyland" Accounts of the 1926 Smithsonian-Dutch Expedition to New Guinea

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Journal of Matthew Stirling
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August 25, 1926 : Head Camp (Lower & Upper) ; Rouffaer River


August 25

This morning the river was again rising, so Le Roux and I loaded our luggage in a canoe and sent it to the Upper Camp with five Dyaks. We will probably go up ourselves tomorrow. By way of killing time I went up the river a mile or so, natural history bent.

This evening the Dyaks returned from the Upper Camp, reporting the water much better. Just before sunset a great {p. 222} howling came to us from across the river and we saw a Papuan dog on the gravel bar. Whether there are Papuans near or whether he is a lost dog wandering around, we don't know. From the heart[-]rending tone and wholesouled enthusiasm of his howls, the latter is probably the case.




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