488 The Aru Islands. 



are Vorkai and Maykor, are said to be very similar in general 

 character ; but they are rather near together, and have a num- 

 ber of cross channels intersecting the flat tract between them. 

 On the south side of Maykor the banks are very rocky, and 

 from thence to the southern extremity of Aru is an uninter- 

 rupted extent of rather elevated and very rocky country, pen- 

 etrated by numerous small streams, in the high limestone cliffs 

 bordering which the edible birds' nests of Aru are chiefly ob- 

 tained. All my informants stated that the two southern riv- 

 ers are larger than Watelai. 



The whole of Aru is low, but by no means so flat as it has 

 been represented, or as it appears from the sea. Most of it 

 is dry rocky ground, with a somewhat undulating surface, 

 rising h'ere and there into abrupt hillocks, or cut into steep 

 and narrow ravines. Except the patches of swamp which 

 are found at the mouths of most of the small rivers, there is 

 no absolutely level ground, although the greatest elevation 

 is probably not more than two hundred feet. The rock which 

 everywhere appears in the ravines and brooks is a coralline 

 limestone, in some places soft and pliable, in others so hard 

 and crystalline as to resemble our mountain limestone. 



The small islands which surround the central mass are 

 very numerous ; but most of them are on the east side, where 

 they form a fringe, often extending ten or fifteen miles from 

 the main islands. On the west there are very few, Wamma 

 and Pulo Babi being the chief, with Ougia and Wassia at the 

 north-Avest extremity. On the east side the sea is everywhere 

 shallow, and full of coral ; and it is here that the pearl-shells 

 are found which form one of the chief staples of Aru trade. 

 All the islands are covered with a dense and very lofty forest. 



The jDhysical features here described are of peculiar interest, 

 and, as far as I am aware, are to some extent unique ; for I 

 have been unable to find any other record of an island of the 

 size of Aru crossed by channels which exactly resemble true 

 rivers. How these channels originated was a complete puzzle 

 to me, till, after a long consideration of the whole of the nat- 

 ural phenomena presented by these islands, I arrived at a 

 conclusion which I will now endeavor to explain. There are 

 three ways in which we may conceive islands which are 

 not volcanic to liave been formed, or to have been reduced to 



