Page:Picturesque New Guinea.djvu/413



GERMAN NEW GUINEA EXPLORATIONS.

(Brisbane Daily Observer, September 17th, 1886.)

R. Knappe, German Consul at Samoa, was a passenger by the “Alexandra,” s., for Sydney yesterday, after making an official tour in the German territories of the Pacific. In the course of a conversation with a representative of this journal on board the steamer, he stated that, acting under instructions from the Imperial Government, he left Samoa in June last, and was transported by the flagship of the German squadron, the “Bismarck,” to New Britain and the Marshall Group, where he consulted the leading German traders with reference to important matters relating to the government of those islands, and the better organisation of the group. After spending a few weeks among the various islands Dr. Knappe arrived at Finschhafen, and at once accompanied a scientific expedition in the “Ottilie” up the Empress Augusta River, which empties into the sea some hundreds of miles from Finschhaven. He describes it as a magnificent stream, varying in width from one to two miles. There is no bar, and the “Ottilie” steamed up it a distance of 310 miles. The party then took the steam launch and navigated the river for another ninety miles. At the furthest point reached they were fifty-three miles from the Dutch boundary on the west, and sixty-three miles from the British boundary on the south. The river for the whole of the way up varied in depth from ten to fifteen fathoms. For the first 250 miles the country was fertile, with portions liable to inundation; not far back on the right hand side, however, a range of mountains towered aloft. The river had previously been explored by Captain Dahlmanu in the Samoa, for a