GEOGRAPHY. 351 



Of volcanoes active at present, the chart shows seven on 

 the island of Niphon, three on Kiusiu, and six on small iso- 

 lated islands. 



NEW GUINEA. 



Shortly before his death, Mr. A. Petermann published a 

 small chart on a scale of 1 : 180,000, showing the results of 

 the explorations of Signor d'Albertis in New Guinea. The 

 Fly River is shown to be navigable to the foot of the moun- 

 tains in the centre of the island, a distance of 500 miles, and 

 flows through a country well adapted for raising tobacco, 

 cotton, coffee, and sugar. The depth of the lower part of 

 the river is from five to six fathoms, gradually decreasing to 

 two and three fathoms as the river is ascended. At the far- 

 thest point reached, lat. 5 30' S., long. 141 30' E., progress 

 was arrested by the rapid current of seven miles an hour. A 

 large tributary of the Fly River was discovered and named 

 the Alice, its mouth being in lat. 6 10' S. Its course was 

 examined for about 40 miles. 



The south coast of the island has been examined during 

 the past year by Mr. James Chalmers and Captain Dudfield, 

 in the missionary steamer Ellangowan. Mr. Chalmers com- 

 municated with about 200 villages, visiting 105 personally, 

 in 90 of which no white man had previously been seen. Sev- 

 eral bays, harbors, rivers, and islands were discovered and 

 named; and the country between Meikle and Orangerie 

 bays, together with that lying back of Kerepuna, was ex- 

 plored. 



Mr. Chalmers thinks that the inhabitants of the inland vil- 

 lages are the aborigines, and have been driven to the hills 

 by the more warlike tribes now occupying the coast. 



Mr. Andrew Goldie, who has been engaged in making 

 natural-history collections, has explored some parts of New 

 Guinea never before visited by Europeans. He discovered 

 a river, to which he has given his own name, a tributary of 

 the Usborne, which flows into Redscar Bay. He penetrated 

 the country to a distance of 100 miles from the coast, but was 

 stopped by the dense undergrowth. He has collected about 

 1000 skins of birds, and among them are some entirely new 

 species, besides 23 specimens of the Paradisea raggiana. 

 Mr. Goldie describes the four tribes of natives through whose 

 country he passed as in mutual terror of each other. 



