3 The New York Years (1931–1953)

Expeditions to New Guinea and the Solomon Islands 83
porters, Mayr carried their canvas tent which was wet from frequent rains and
gained further weight when they had to wade shoulder deep through the Wurulata
River. Being very fit at that time, he managed to bring the tent all the way back to
the coast.
For both W. Coultas and W. Eyerdam collecting on Choiseul was their first
field experience in the tropics. They appreciated Mayr’s advice and knowledge. As
Coultas recorded: “Mayr has proven to be a great help to Eyerdam and me, both with
bush lore and birds. To have someone with us who can identify material and direct
the activities of the hunters is far more expedient than just trusting to luck” (23
September; p. 27) and again: “Mayr has been a great help in teaching me something
of the bush and how to find one’s way about without assistance. The average novice,
when beginning his bush work, blazes Boy Scout trails a yard wide that will soon
confuse him in an area if he makes enough of them. I have been told that one will
develop a bush sense in time and will require few if any markers. Until that time,
Mayr encouraged me to leave footprints in soft earth and always break twigs of
uniform bushes on my left side as I went along. In that manner, I could later on
determine the length of time since I had been over this or that trail and the direction
in which I had been going. Crosstrails are always confusing but this method helped
to overcome this difficulty. Mayr’s early advice was well grounded. I never became
definitely lost in all of my time with the expedition” (21 October, p. 40).
By now, the pigeon was so undoubtedly known to be extinct that the expedition
shortened the stay on Choiseul and departed for Tulagi (Florida Island) on 5
November, however, leaving behind David, one of the three Polynesian hunters,
to search several additional areas of the island. He was equally unsuccessful and
joined the group again in Tulagi three weeks later. 13
“The trip from Choiseul to Tulagi was nothing but disaster,” Mayr wrote. “As
we began to sail we sent two men from the crew to the mouth of a river with the
freshwatertanktoreplenishourfreshwatersupply.Theyhadstrictinstructions
to taste the water to make sure they had pure fresh water, but once we were on our
way and had our first tea, it turned out that they had disobeyed our orders and
had indeed taken in brackish water. For the next twelve days we lived on brackish
water. Our diet was equally unsatisfactory, canned, low-grade Alaska salmon and
rice. The only redeeming feature was that the natives had discovered mangrove
oysters and had filled a gunnysack with live oysters. We dragged this sack on a long
rope behind the boat and pulled it up whenever we felt like a dish of oysters. They
stayedfreshuntilwehadconsumedthemall.
Since the “France” had no working motor we depended entirely on sailing. We
had to sail essentially against the prevailing wind direction at this time of season,
southeast. Whatever advance we made by tacking, we lost again in this clumsy
tub by side-slipping and after 24 h we were often just where we had been the day
before. Our nerves frayed, we fought each other. After we had arrived at Tulagi, we
made a bee-line for the nearest pub and after about two Scotches we were again
able to speak to each other.”
13 Further searches for Microgoura during the 1940s were also in vain. It had probably
vanished during the 1910s.