3 The New York Years (1931–1953)

62 2 The Budding Scientist
No trouble arose between Mayr and the Kofo people. In fact, on 16 June the
whole village was lined up wailing about their visitor’s departure. After the delay
of a whole day when two hunters had shot a wild boar, they reached Ditchi at
noon of the 19th and left for the coast at daybreak of the following morning. While
they descended Mayr received the mail of several weeks. Overjoyed, he spent the
evening in Ninei reading and rereading his 25 letters. On their arrival in Siwi the
next forenoon they found the village empty since the people had left for the coast
and for a distant valley to collect dammar 7 . By paying a whole load of salt to their
chief, Mayr persuaded the Ditchi porters to stay with him. They arrived at Momi
in the early afternoon of 23 June (Fig. 2.7) and, with a fairly old canoe, left again
for Manokwari in the early afternoon on 24 June. They all paddled strongly for
many hours until they reached their destination at 10 o’clock in the evening of
the following day. Tired, unshaved, dirty, and sunburnt, Mayr immediately had to
board the Dutch marine survey ship to tell about his adventures.
(3) Wondiwoi Mountains, Wandammen Peninsula (Fig. 2.5)
Itinerary:
28 June–5 July 1928 en route to Wasior
6 July 1928 climbing Wondiwoi Mountain
7–18 July 1928 Wondiwoi Mountain collecting
19–26 July 1928 at Wasior
27–29 July 1928 en route to Hollandia
When the mail ship reached Manokwari, Mayr received bad news: The two boxes
from Java with the needed supplies including ammunition for their bird guns had
not arrived. Transportation was always a problem. Going from one place to another,
dividing the baggage into smaller shipments in order to make use of available boats,
etc., all that caused many difficulties. After three days of preparations in Manokwari
the expedition left again for Momi and Wasior (Wandammen Peninsula) on the
evening of 28 June. The objective was to collect birds on the higher slopes and
the top of the Wondiwoi Mountains which form the backbone of the peninsula.
Paddling all night they had reached the base of the Arfak Mountains next morning
and then moved slowly southward against a strong southeasterly wind towards
Momi where they arrived in the evening of 30 June. By that time the mail canoe
with the supplies and equipment was supposed to be there, but when they started
again on the government ship “Griffioen” on 4 July Mayr was still waiting for
his shipment. The next morning they unloaded their baggage in Wasior at the
foot of the Wondiwoi Mountains. This was Mayr’s 24th birthday; but instead of
celebrating they had to prepare their departure on 6 July. Since hunting of birds
of paradise had been forbidden and nobody had climbed up to the mountains,
the trail was completely overgrown. The vegetation was wet and bamboo thickets
7 The Malay name of dammar refers to resin collected from several different species of
trees and is used to make nondripping torches.