Ecology of Indonesian Papua Part One. Andrew J. Marshall
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Bay became a center for Neu-Guinea-Compagnie activities on the mainland.
From 1886 the pioneer Lutheran missionary Johannes Flierl collected animals on the Huon Peninsula, beginning at Simbang near Finschhafen; in this he was followed by his son and grandson. In botany Flierl was complemented by another Lutheran priest, G. Bamler who collected in the Peninsula and particularly on the Tami Islands (collections to Berlin). In 1891 they were followed by H. Fruhstorfer, who collected Lepidoptera at Finschhafen and elsewhere.
Non-missionary botanists were also soon active. Apart from Hollrung (see above), important collections were made by Hellwig (1888–1889) and C. Wein-land (1889–1891), the latter also a Finschhafen-based Neu-Guinea-Compagnie official (and Hellwig’s professional successor), and, over six weeks in 1889, by Warburg (see above) (Berlin; now largely destroyed, but duplicates in Wroclaw (Breslau), Kew and elsewhere). Hellwig—with whom Warburg made some trips—was the first to reach mountain localities. The first foray was to Sattelberg west of Finschhafen (ca 900 m, where "oaks" (Lithocarpus) were found for the first time and soon afterwards a mission "hill station" would be established). The second foray—accompanied by another metropolitan visitor (a well-known writer and newspaperman from Cologne, Hugo Zöller)—was to the western Finisterres, from where the Bismarck range and its high peaks, Mts Otto, Wilhelm, Herbert, and Marien were all seen (and named) and the first rhododendrons collected (all in sect. Vireya). One of the more stunning (and relatively widespread) of these—which may reach as low as 100 m—remains known as R. zoelleri.
As we have seen, the Neu-Guinea-Compagnie was strongly active in agricultural development, initially in the hope of attracting German smallholders, later turning to plantations. Over 1887–1891 and 1893–1894 (and at other times on his own account) its horticulturalist, L. Kärnbach, a pupil of the Berlin Botanical Garden, traveled widely in the territory. In addition to much information on useful plants, gathered together particularly in a paper of 1893 and (after his loss at sea in 1897) in M. Krieger’s 1899 book Neu-Guinea,Kärnbach also obtained many marine algae—beginning the investigation of these plants since ably carried on from time to time (a first consolidation of knowledge was made in 1900 in Lauterbach’s Flora; see below).
In 1890–1891 C. A. Lauterbach, a botanist-geographer of private means with an estate now within the western part of the present Polish city of Wroclaw, made the first of three trips to New Guinea. In addition to the Gazelle Peninsula, he collected along the Huon Gulf from Finschhafen toward the Bukaua district and "Burgberg" (Lo Wamung at Lae), on the Sattelberg, and around Astrolabe Bay and was the first to penetrate the Gogol River south of Friederich-Wilhelmshafen (now Madang). He was to return to New Guinea for some time in 1896 and again in 1899–1900 (see below). Until the end of his life in 1937 he remained strongly interested in New Guinea, both in a business role (he was an early director of the Neu-Guinea Compagnie as a purely commercial concern after mid-1899) and a personal role (supporting the publication of the later botanical results of New Guinea explorations and himself preparing accounts of many plant families).
Lauterbach’s collections ranged across the whole plant kingdom (private her-barium now in Wroclaw, a fortunate survivor of major upheavals there in 1944– 1945; duplicates in Berlin, Kew, and elsewhere). This is reflected in his important 1900 work (with the Berlin botanist K. Schumann), Die Flora der deutschen Schutzgebiete in der Südsee; a supplement (Nachträge) followed in 1905. Long standard, for non-primary forest plants in the lowlands in particular, it provides fairly considerable coverage. In later years, in addition to his accounts of plant families Lauterbach was to add considerably to knowledge of the phytogeography and vegetation of New Guinea, including in 1928–1930 "cross-sections" of different formations in which he drew upon his personal knowledge as well as the results of others. He also contributed to general works on New Guinea as well as German territories as a whole.
Warburg also summed up his experiences (and plant records), notably in his already-mentioned paper of 1891. Here, he argued that while there were several distinct elements in the flora of New Guinea, its predominant relationship was with western Malesia. Yet, for him no "line" in the island region west of New Guinea could be recognized as a major discontinuity comparable with the several for faunal (mainly higher vertebrate) discontinuity proposed, among others, by Wallace, Weber, and Lydekker. The Berlin botanist L. Diels was, however, later to propose a major floral line at Torres Strait—subsequently adopted by van Steenis as a demarcation for Flora Malesiana. Evidence aired at a symposium in Australia in 1972 and since has now somewhat weakened this argument. Warburg also proposed the term "Papuasia" to refer to the whole region from New Guinea to the Solomon Islands, an area known to zoogeographers as the "Papuan Subregion" (though Mayr’s "Papuan Region" of 1941 only includes New Guinea and its more or less fringing islands, excluding the Bismarcks and Solomons).
The aforementioned changes to shipping and transfer of activities to Astrolabe Bay—where under a subsidiary, the Astrolabe-Compagnie, tobacco cultivation was during the 1890s vigorously expanded (though at some human cost)—brought in many collectors who were also active elsewhere in Malesia, among them a number of non-Germans. Scheduled shipping services, along with hotels and guesthouses, were now making it easier for visitors to travel (and tour) around the ports.
Among the first was Bernard Hagen, engaged from Sumatra by the Astrolabe-Compagnie as an expert in "Deli" tobacco. From 1894–1895, in addition to his duties, he undertook ethnographic studies and collected mainly insects and birds (Berlin). In addition to Astrolabe Bay localities such as Stephansort and Erima, he also collected at Berlinhafen (now Aitape)—then a "new" locality (but where, on the offshore island of Seleo, Kärnbach (see above) had established for himself a coconut plantation). Departing for health reasons, Hagen later worked up his observations into a popular book, Unter den Papuas (1899). Hagen was followed in 1895 by one of the early dilettante-travelers, O. Ehlers, who came with an idea to cross the mainland cordillera from north to south—something not previously attempted. A police-master, W. Piering, was grudgingly seconded by the administration; but, starting from near Samoahafen, some weeks into their trip (and out of food) both were lost with collections and notes in a river. Only their two local assistants got through to the Lakekamu River (in British New Guinea). From then on, the authorities—faced with much strife elsewhere (ultimately one of the factors leading to the withdrawal of the Neu-Guinea-Compagnie from government)—were, as already indicated, more cautious with regard to the mainland interior, with the result that its penetration was relatively slow and only for experienced persons with strong support.
British-supported collectors also began to make their appearance, reflecting wealthy backing. In 1890 Carl Wahnes began his long association with New Guinea (until 1909) as a collector for the British Museum, Tring, and other institutions (e.g., Odonata at the University of Michigan). During several sojourns he collected insects, birds, and other animals on the Huon Peninsula (Finschhafen, Simbang, Sattelberg, Rawlinson Range), at Bongu on Astrolabe Bay (Miklucho-Maclay’s old base), and on some offshore islands (Tarawai, Isle Deslacs) and in New Britain. Wahnes’s collections led to numerous publications, including some by Rothschild and the other Tring zoologists, C. Jordan and E. Hartert. In 1893– 1894 the "eccentric" English sea captains Cotton and H. Cayley Webster (the latter returning in 1897)—with recommendations from Hansemann as well as Rothschild—collected birds and butterflies (Tring/BMNH). Some specialist papers resulted and Cayley Webster soon wrote a popular work, Through New Guinea and the Cannibal Countries (1898)—among the earliest in English in an extended tradition of such books.
Austria-Hungary was once more represented, mainly in the long sojourns of the Hungarians Samuel Fenichel (1893–1895) and Lajos Biró (1895–1901). The two worked extensively around Astrolabe Bay, at Berlinhafen and its offshore islands, and in the eastern Huon Peninsula (Simbang, Bingala, Sattelberg) as well as on the Gazelle Peninsula (see also below)—though mostly at lower elevations. Their primary emphasis was on insects but many other animals were collected (Budapest, but birds, reptiles, amphibians, mollusks and Diptera—excluding Pupipara—were destroyed during the 1956 uprisings; parts of Fenichel’s collections are now at the College of Nagyenyed in Transylvania, in modern Romania). Plants were also collected (Berlin and elsewhere). Biró also obtained many lichens (or lichenized fungi), which were included by Schumann and Lauterbach in their 1900 Flora and much later (1956) by O. Szatala in a first checklist of all those in New Guinea.