The expedition investigated 2500 km of rugged limestone country in the West Sepik province of Papua New Guinea, between the Strickland Gorge and the Irian Jaya border. The main objectives were the location and mapping of caves in the high altitude karst of the Hindenburg mountains and the study of their biology, hydrology and structure. Two hundred systems were recorded and some were of vast dimensions. One open pit was 280 m deep and descents were made into other shaft systems for 340 m and 360 m. The longest cave located was Selminum Tem, in which 20-5 km of passages were surveyed and the fossil skeleton of a Miocene syrenian was discovered. Three appendices report briefly on the geomorphology, biology and anthropology of the area.
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Brook et al. (1977) studied this question.
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