210 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Australia, the scenery of New Guinea appears especially grand and 

 imposing. It differs greatly in character. 



The natives of the coast evidently helong to two distinct races. 

 From a point rather to the westward of Port Moresby right on to 

 Aroma, the people are light-colored, of tall and graceful figure, grave 

 in manner, taciturn, and abhorring cannibalism. The men's dress is 

 simply a strip of bark twisted into a string. The wearers of this ex- 

 press great contempt for neighboring tribes who go perfectly naked. 

 The other race is black, of shorter and sturdier figure, nimble, cheer- 

 ful, loquacious, and cannibal. The men wear a curious and decent 

 costume of leaf. The women of both races wear the titi petticoat of 

 grass, which is very like a ballet-dancer's skirt. At Port Moresby 

 the houses are built half in the water. At Tupu-selei, Kaile, and 

 Kappa-kappa, they stand out in the sea at a distance of a couple 

 of hundx-ed yards from the beach. Throughout the parts of New 

 Guinea with which I am acquainted, the inhabitants are ingenious and 

 industrious agriculturists, and carefully fence in their plantations. 

 Their houses are large and well built. They make very fine fishing- 

 nets. The canoes of Port Moresby are of enormous size, and the 

 trees out of which they are dug are procured by barter from tribes 

 living a long way off. The Port Moresby pottery is made in large 

 quantities for export ; as is a finer kind at Toulon Island by the dark 

 race. This shows that both races engage in manufacturing industry 

 for the express purpose of trading with the products, a thing of happy 

 augury for their future progress. 



My second trip to New Guinea included visits to the Louisiades, 

 to Woodlark Island, to Rook and Long Islands, and to the mainland 

 near Cape King William. The Louisiade people are in physique and 

 knowledge of the arts inferior to both races of Southeastern New 

 Guinea. Many of them are quite unfamiliar with white men. But 

 I found, even among them, some who had heard of Queen Victoria, a 

 name which is so frequently known and so greatly respected through- 

 out the Southwestern Pacific that the stranger is fairly astonished. A 

 native of Joannet Island intimated that he was aware that Queen 

 Victoria was the chief of Cooktown, the little port in Northern 

 Queensland. On Rossel Island I noticed, in the case of some of the 

 men, the curious dentition which the eminent Russian traveler, Dr. 

 Miklukho Maclay, has called " macrodontism." A continuous tooth 

 extends over the space usually occupied by two or three teeth. The 

 Woodlark-Islanders are very fierce, and at one time I thought a collis- 

 ion with them inevitable. They make the same curious gesture of 

 salutation as the Basilaki (or Moresby) islanders, pinching first the 

 nose with one hand and then the navel with the other, finishing up 

 with a low bow. 



The unlives of the northeast coast of New Guinea whom I met 

 were black, and not superior in physique to the Louisiade people. 



