ANOTHER LOST WORLD

Evening Star, Issue 19855, 2 May 1928, Page 10

ANOTHER LOST WORLD

RACE LIVING ON HIGH PLATEAU Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's ‘ Lost World’ has a definite rival, if the reports made by a Government party which recently visited Long Island, situated about sixty miles oil the coast at Mad nag, New Guinea, arc substantiated. The lost race is claimed to be living in the crater of an extinct, volcano, on the top of a mountain which is 4.000 fl above sea-level. News of the discovery was received in Sydney from a member of the party of inspection, and ho is definite on the point of the existence cf this lost tribe of kanakas. It was only the second visit of n Government party to the island, the previous party having discovered little of interest concerning the life there. The last party, which concluded its trip about a month ago, went to the island with the express intention of exploring the crater of tho volcano, the existence of which had been noted previously. After a long and extremely difficult climb through thick jungle-like growth Hie party reached the rim, and discovered a lake estimated lo be about four miles square, and at least 700 ft below the rim of tho crater. Thewalls of the crater were almost vertical.— at any rate impossible to negotiate--but on tho far side the officials could see a large, densely-limbered plateau. So far as they could gather from tho native member of their party, and by inquiries in Madang later, tho plateau lias never been visited by white men r.r by natives of New Guinea vho have come in contact with whites, hut while they quizzed tho plateau through tho field glasses smoke started to vise from a clearing in tho trees, and the natives with them became extraordinarily excited. Subsequently the bead man explained that on the plteau lived a race known as kanakas, who had never been seen in numbers by natives, and were, so far ns tho head man knew, totally unknown by whites. Natives had no communication with tho kanakas, but occasionally found their footprints, while natives living outside the crater had lost girls, who. they believed, were stolen by the inhabitants of the plateau. As the Long Island natives speak tho language of portion of tho mainland, and are known to have migrated from the mainland after tho last eruption, the discovery of the inhabited volcano crater opens up the interesting question whether some of the original inhabitants of the island have descendant* on tho inaccessible plateau with their own language and unknown customsThe Government patrol attempted to find a way to the plateau without success, their native companions exhibiting a. decided disinclination to seek a way down the walls of the crater. Following their report, another patrol will visit the island shortly with tho single purpose of discovering something of the newly-found lost world.