508 New Guinea. 



the steamer to get back to Araboyna if the coal-ship did not 

 return ; and they had also cleared a number of wide, straight 

 paths through the forest in various directions, greatly to the 

 astonishment of the natives, who could not make out what it 

 all meant. I had now a variety of walks, and a good of deal 

 of dead wood on which to search for insects ; but notwithstand- 

 ing these advantages, they were not nearly so plentiful as I had 

 found them at Sarawak, or Amboyna, or Batchian, confirming 

 my opinion that Dorey was not a good locality. It is quite 

 probable, however, that at a station a few miles in the interior, 

 away from the recently elevated coralline rocks and the influ- 

 ence of the sea air, a much more abundant harvest might be 

 obtained. 



One afternoon I went on board the steamer to return the 

 captain's visit, and was shown some very nice sketches (by one 

 of the lieutenants), made on the south coast, and also at the 

 Arfak mountain, to which they had made an excursion. From 

 these and the captain's description, it appeared that the people 

 of Arfak were similar to those of "Dorey,, and I could hear 

 nothing of the straight-haired race which Lesson says inhab- 

 its the interior, but which no one has ever seen, and the ac- 

 count of which I suspect has originated in some mistake. 

 The captain told me he had made a detailed survey of part of 

 the south coast, and if the coal arrived should go away at once 

 to Humboldt Bay, in longitude 141° east, which is the line up 

 to which the Dutch claim New Guinea. On board the tender 

 I found a brother naturalist, a German named Rosenberg, who 

 was draughtsman to the surveying staff. He had brought 

 two men with him to shoot and skin birds, and had been able 

 to purchase a few rare skins from the natives. Among these 

 was a pair of the superb Paradise Pie (Astrapia nigra) in tol- 

 erable jDreservation. They were brought from the island of 

 Jobie, which may be its native country, as it certainly is of the 

 rarer species of crown pigeon (Goura steursii), one of which 

 was brought alive and sold on board. Jobie, however, is 

 a very dangerous place, and sailors are often murdered there 

 when on shore ; sometimes the vessels themselves being at- 

 tacked. Wandammen, on the main-land opposite Jobie, where 

 there are said to be plenty of birds, is even worse, and at 

 either of these places my Ufe Avould not have been worth a 



