Maritime Shells
p. 18 · Read in the full issue
Found on High Central Plateau, New Guinea
Father Alphonse Schaefer, Of
Korugu, New Guinea (which is situated in the Wahgi Valley, behind the Bismarck ranges in Central New Guinea) when levelling a landing ground for the aeroplane of the Mission, found at a depth of 9-10 feet, large quantities of petrified snail and other shells, imbedded through out the grey-bluish clay at an altitude of 4500 feet.
According to some of his boys from the coast, these are specimens of such snails and shells as are found only in the sea.
Among these were quantities of trochus and nautilus shell.
The petrified specimens are being examined at present by experts and, if they prove to be of maritime origin, it would follow that this part of the high plateau behind the Bismarck Mountains, and perhaps the whole of that large high plateau around Mount Hagen, at one time was under the sea.