PARIWARA ISLANDS. 293 



trees^ probably a Bomhax or JSrytJtrina^ — at this 

 time destitute of leaves^ — on the other is a hig-h bare 

 rock with three other small detached^ needle-shaped 

 ones lying' off it. The observations with the 

 theodolite having* been completed we obtained some 

 sounding's and returned to the ship. 



The view we had to-day from the Pariwara 

 Islands was not so interesting as I had expected. 

 The shores of the bay stretching- to the northward 

 of Redscar Head for many miles are low and 

 covered with tall trees behind a strip of sandy 

 beach. At the back of the point in the corner of 

 the bay^ we saw an opening* two hundred yards wide^ 

 with tall mangToves on the northern bank^ appa- 

 rently one of the mouths of a river traversing the 

 g-reat extent of low wooded country behind. A 

 very larg-e fire two or three miles behind the beach^ 

 sending up g-reat volumes of smoke^ mig'ht have 

 been intended for a sig-nal^ but neither canoes nor 

 natives were seen during- our absence from the ship. 

 Sejjt, 24:111, — A canoe with twelve young- men 

 and lads came off fi^om the shore^ and approached 

 within two hundred yards of the ship^ but although 

 tempted by the exhibition of a larg-e piece of red 

 cloth^ they would come no closer. Their visit was 

 apparently prompted by mere curiosity ns they had 

 nothing- to barter with. These natives closely 

 resembled the other Papuans seen to the eastward, 

 but were smaller in stature, and wore the hair 

 frizzled up into a mop projecting backwards, nor had 



