by setting a flattened bamboo spear attached to a bent sapling which is fastened to a trigger in such a way that it is released by the passerby stumbling against an invisible string stretched across the track. The spears are poisoned, either with the famous “upas” [Antiaris] or some other similar vegetable poison, and a wound from one of them means almost instant death.     Whether such primitive defensive methods avail them against the huge gazeka is not known, but the chances are that they find safety in retreat.     According to the official reports, the gazeka is of gigantic size and fearsome aspect. It is black and white striped, has the nose of a tapir and “a face like the devil.” Among the English inhabitants of the island, the animal is known as Monckton’s gazeka, in honor of Mr. C. A. W. Monckton, a former explorer in New Guinea, who first reported its presence in the mountains. Mr. Monckton, during his, ascent ot Mount Albert Edward, in the west of British New Guinea, discovered the huge footprints and other indications of the very recent presence of some tremendous monster that had evidently been prowling on the grassy plains surrounding the lakes on the summit at an elevation of about 12,500 feet. He followed the trail all day, and came upon the monster at dusk, just as it was devastating a settlement of the pigmies. The little natives were screaming and running for their lives, although they turned every now and again to aim their poisoned arrows at the brute.

Monckton let fire as soon as he was able to get in a proper position, and the huge gazeka at once turned upon him. As it reared upon its hind legs and pawed the air it looked to the hunter as big as a house, standing fully 25 feet high. Two of Monckton’s bullets seemed to take effect, as a stream of blood flowed freely from the animal’s shoulder, but before Monckton was able to reload the animal turned and fled. By that time it was too dark to follow him, and Monckton never had another opportunity to renew his pursuit.     None of the inhabitants was brave enough to repeat Monckton’s attempt to capture the brute, and until the British expedition reached New Guinea he has prowled around with impunity, occasionally descending upon the rudimentary huts of the pigmies and destroying those who failed to fly in time. The British explorers were aware of Monckton’s experience, and in fact, it is believed that one of the principal objects of the expedition was to secure a specimen of the strange monster. It has long been known that there were many mammals in New Guinea still to be discovered, but just what they expected to find the scientists themselves could not tell.     New Guinea lies to the east of what is known as Wallace’s line, an imaginary line defined by A. R. Wallace, on one side of which only placenta animals are found, while on the other only marsupials exist. No tapirs or rhinoceroses exist to the east of Wallace’s line, which includes Australia and New Guinea, but about the period when the mastodon and the mammoth flourished in