INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1876. cxix 



raphy of this part of the island was based on an old Dutch chart 

 of 1705. 



The Fly River has been explored by Mr. S. Macfarlane, accom- 

 panied by the Italian naturalist, Signor D'Albertis, in a steamer to a 

 distance of 150 miles from the mouth. This is the first positive 

 knowledge that the river is really navigable, and Mr. Macfarlane 

 considers it probable that they could have proceeded much farther 

 but for fevers which attacked nearly all the party. The land was 

 low and swampy, and the population scattered. 



Signor D'Albertis proposes to revisit this vicinity and explore the 

 Fly River to the head of navigation, and from that point to cross the 

 country to Yule Island. The Chamber of Commerce of Sydney have 

 undertaken to assist him, and have furnished him with a steam launch. 



Mr. Octavius Stone, one of the explorers of the Baxter River, has 

 been continuing his labors from Port Moresby to the eastward of 

 the Papuan Gulf. The low country of the coast seemed to be bare, 

 luxuriant vegetation only being found where the mountain ranges 

 rise and intercept the rainfall. Mr. Stone, in a recent communica- 

 tion to the British Association, remarks that the neighborhood of 

 the Baxter River and the shore west of the Papuan Gulf for 100 

 miles inland are swampy, covered with mangrove trees, and thinly 

 poiDulated. The climate of the western coast is peculiarly fatal to 

 Europeans, but the eastern peninsula is warm and healthy. 



Dr. Miklucho-Maklay is engaged in exploring the group of little- 

 known islands lying between New Guinea, New Ireland, and New 

 Britain. 



