Page:Scented isles and coral gardens- Torres Straits, German New Guinea and the Dutch East Indies, by C.D. Mackellar, 1912.pdf/248

198 There are the great mountain ranges—does no one want to learn their secrets? Nothing is really known of them, and their heights are mere matters of conjecture. You see them piling up height upon height into the distance, and they tell me that sometimes snow-peaked ranges are visible.

[Viewed from the sea, which of course makes a difference, they bore a more imposing aspect to me than did many of the ranges of the Andes in Ecuador, Peru, or Bolivia; but, in the case of the South American giants, I usually viewed them from a considerable height above sea-level. I saw no peak in NewGuinea which, after all,could be mentioned with magnificent Chimborazo as I saw it from the sea at Guayaquil; but none of them anywhere can ever have the interest for me that that untrodden snow-clad peak near the South Pole, which bears my name, has—and it, alas, I shall never see!]

The Owen Stanley range in British New Guinea we know something about, and its highest peak, Mount Victoria, 13,150 feet, has been scaled by Sir W. Macgregor: its other monarchs are Mount Albert Edward, 12,550 feet; Scratchley, 12,250feet;Winter,Douglas,and Knutsford,11,882, 11,796, and 11,157 feet respectively. The Albert Victor and Sir Arthur Gordon ranges appear to join the Bismarck range, and it is believed a great chain of monarchs stretches to the north, some of them estimated to be 16,000 or 17,000 feet high—the Charles Louis range is supposed to attain a still greater height. The Arfak Mountains, too, in the north of New Guinea are of great height. All practically remain unknown. [Mr. Pratt has made expeditions amongst the Arfak Mountains. He tells me they are very fine and the scenery superb, and described some parts as being clothed with beautiful rhododendrons. Mr. Pratt and