The Arizona sentinel., 1895-11-23
YUMA. A ARIZONA, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 23,
Van Gestel's Travels Through NeT
 Nulnea.

have crossad the island of New Guinea from shore to shore, to have actually traver8ed the vast un : known interior and 5 en the abo- riginal PlpUans face to face in tn air native forests. is Van Gestel,
 started in 1874, from the mouth of the Fly River in the Gulf of Papua. on the south coast of New Guinea, to run the fronticr line. There was talk at that time of the annexation of New Guinea by the government of Queensland, Australia, and so the Dutch goyerr- ment resolved to define it's posses sions. I entered Papua with a de- tachment of hundred Dutch sol diers, in their tidy uniforms of light blue linen, and band of as many coolies to carry supplies.
 "The interior of New Guinea Is one vast mass of upheaved granite, without traces of minerals or metal ores, the strata tilted and piled topsy-turvy. Everywhere the work i of volcanic eruptions Is to be seen Such a thinly populated region, considering the fact that It was an absolutely new country and that fruits and small game were so plen- tiful, did not suppose could exist. The natives we saw from time to time, at a distance mostly; they never molested us. Their heads were fiat on top, with long, curly, black hair; they went entirely naked. Their buttocks extended out eight and even ten inches, this Irepulsiye deformity constituting a fieshy support amply capable of sustaining child in a sitting posi- ton. Nor was this their most marked peculiarity. Some of the nursing mothers threw their breasts back over their shoulders or under their arms, at will, to feed the in fant carried in sling between their shoulders.
 "The Papuans are very unat- tractive race to look upon. In arms they were primitive to de- gree that was astounding. They had neither bows nor spears that I saw, ther only weapons being stone hatchets. Of the use of metals they seemed to be entirely ignorant. In the dry season they made their homes in caves, which they found or excavated for them selves. Some of these caves dwell ings I visited, discovering fragments of their repasts and occasionally a broken stone ax. In the rainy sea- son they live high in the trees, where they build rude houses of sticks laid around and intertWined with the branches, thatched with dried alang-alang, and reached by shaky looking stick ladders.
 Most startling was the solitude, the destitution of life and motion, in the great central plateaus which we reached in our gradual ascent from the river level There were plenty of small creatures of the squirrel tribe, some of the peculiar pig headed deer we have in Java, and an occasional little tiger cat, rather handsome than hurtful look ing. That was all. 1 saw in my whole journey, from the mouth of the Fly River on the southeast coast to Geelvink Bay on the north west, not a single beast of prey, un- less those pretty little spotted tree cats could be dignifed by that name. Not 6 kangaroo of either the tree climbing CT grass jumping variety was seen, nor any of the dingos or wild dogs elsewhere re- ported I did see Q number of specimens of the great bat called by the natives k&Iong or flying dog with it's curious coat of light brown hair and it's wing expanse ot six feet-truly formidable looking creature, but not hurtfUl as I found it.
 "But of birds there is, verify belive, 8 vaster profusion Of more beautiful tints and delicate plu mage in New Guinea than any where else in the world They fairly famed through those sombel
 forests, which but for their bright
 hues and sharp cries would have
 been fnnereallY suggestive. What