376 GoRAM. 



also that these changes have taken place at a comparatively 

 recent epoch, for the surface of the coral has scarcely suffered 

 from the action of the weather, and hundreds of sea-shells, ex- 

 actly resembling those still found upon the beach, and many 

 of them, retaining their gloss and even their color, are scatter- 

 ed over the surface of the island to near its summit. 



Whether the Goram group formed originally part of New 

 Guinea or of Ceram it is scarcely possible to determine, and 

 its productions will throw little light upon the question if, as 

 I suppose, the islands have been entirely submerged within 

 the epoch of existing species of animals, as in that case it 

 must owe its present fauna and flora to recent immigration 

 from surrounding lands ; and with this view its poverty in 

 species very well agrees. It possesses much in common with 

 East Ceram, but at the same time has a good deal of re- 

 semblance to the Ke Islands and Banda. The fine pigeon 

 Carpophaga concinna inhabits Ke, Banda, Matabello, and 

 Goram, and is replaced by a distinct species, C. neglecta, in 

 Ceram. The insects of these four islands have also a com- 

 mon facies — facts which seem to indicate that some more ex- 

 tensive land has recently disappeared from the area they now 

 occupy, and has supplied them with a few of its peculiar pro- 

 ductions. 



The Goram people (among whom I staid a month) are a 

 race of traders. Every year they visit the Tenimber, Ke, and 

 Aru Islands, the whole north-west coast of New Guinea from 

 Oetanata to Salwatty, and the island of Waigiou and Mysol. 

 They also extend their voyages to Tidore and Ternate, as well 

 as to Banda and Amboyna. Their praus are all made by that 

 wonderful race of boat-builders, the Ke Islanders, who annual- 

 ly turn out some hundreds of boats, large and small, which can 

 hardly be surpassed for beauty of form and goodness of work- 

 manship. They trade chiefly in tripang, the medicinal mussoi 

 bark, wild nutmegs, and tortoise-shell, which they sell to the 

 Bugis traders at Ceram-laut or Aru, few of them caring to 

 take their products to any other market. In other respects 

 they are a lazy race, living very poorly, and much given to 

 opium-smoking. The only native manufactures are sail-mat- 

 ting, coarse cotton cloth,, and pandanus-leaf boxes, prettily 

 stained and ornamented with shell-work. 



