Dutch New Guinea: expedition to the Utakwa River. Photograph album by A.F.R. Wollaston and C. Boden Kloss, 1912-1913.

Wollaston and Boden Closs led a British expedition in 1912-1913 to follow the Utakwa (Otakwa) River and climb the Carstenzs Peaks in Papua, Indonesia. Though not successful in reaching the peaks, Wollaston was awarded the Gill Medal of the Royal Geographical Society on his return. During the expedition he made many observations of the Amungme (Uhunduni) people, who came to see the British explorers in the belief that the latter were revenant spirits of the dead who would lead them to paradise. Ballard, 'A.F.R. Wollaston and the "Utakwa River Mountain Papuan" skulls', loc. cit., suggests that Wollaston surreptitiously cut off and took away the heads of Amungme people who had died of malaria or starvation as a result of leaving their homeland to go and see them. Several human skulls from the expedition were presented by Wollaston to the British Museum (Natural History)