ich was larger than the whaleboat, jumped high in
the air not many yards away. Toward evening we arrived opposite the
bar of the Kumusi River, and we had a very uncomfortable few minutes
getting through the breakers into the river, for if we had been
upset we should soon have become food for the sharks and crocodiles,
which literally swarmed here. We got through the worst part safely,
but then stuck fast on a small sand-bank, and one or two good-sized
breakers half-filled the boat; but we all jumped out and hauled her
off the sand into the deep, calm waters beyond.

After rowing up the river a short distance, we landed at a spot
where there was a trader's store, looked after by an Australian
named Owen. From here miners go up the river to the gold fields in
the Yodda Valley, and cutters are constantly putting in at this store
with miners and provisions.

This district has the reputation of being one of the most unhealthy
spots in New Guinea, and the natives round here are none too friendly,
and hate the government and their police, so that during the last
three years, three or four resident magistrates in the locality have
either been murdered or have died of fever.

We arranged to have our meals with Owen at the store, and we slept in a
rough palm-thatched shed with a raised flooring of split palm-trunks,
which was very hard and rough to sleep on, and gave me a sleepless
night. We got two of our police to sleep in front of the doorway,
as it was more than likely that the natives might attempt to murder
us. These precautions may have been justified as, in the middle of the
night both Acland and I myself saw two natives peering into the hut.

The next day we sent off a messenger to the northern station for more
police, and it was fully a week before they arrived. Meanwhile we spent
our time dynamiting and catching fish. We caught some large ground
sharks fully four hundred pounds in weight, and also a "gorupa"
("groper"), a very large fish of about three hundred and fifty
pounds. This fish is the terror of divers in these parts they fear
it more than any shark. Both shark and fish proved most acceptable
to our police; they are especially fond of shark.

One morning about five o'clock I was aroused by hearing a shrill
war-cry close by. The police rushed up with their rifles and told us
we were attacked. It can be imagined it did not take us long to buckle
on our revolvers and seize our rifles and run, half-asleep as