We Continued To
Hear And See Them In The Forest, But After A Month Had Not
Succeeded In Shooting Any
More; and as my chief object in
visiting Waigiou was to get these birds, I determined to go to
Bessir,
Where there are a number of Papuans who catch and
preserve them. I hired a small outrigger boat for this journey,
and left one of my men to guard my house and goods. We had to
wait several days for fine weather, and at length started early
one morning, and arrived late at night, after a rough and
disagreeable passage. The village of Bessir was built in the
water at the point of a small island. The chief food of the
people was evidently shell-fish, since great heaps of the shells
had accumulated in the shallow water between the houses and the
land, forming a regular "kitchen-midden "for the exploration of
some future archeologist. We spent the night in the chief's
house, and the next morning went over to the mainland to look out
for a place where I could reside. This part of Waigiou is really
another island to the south of the narrow channel we had passed
through in coming to Muka. It appears to consist almost entirely
of raised coral, whereas the northern island contains hard
crystalline rocks. The shores were a range of low limestone
cliffs, worn out by the water, so that the upper part generally
overhung. At distant intervals were little coves and openings,
where small streams came down from the interior; and in one of
these we landed, pulling our boat up on a patch of white sandy
beach.
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