LOUISIADE ARCHIPELAGO. 71 



Pariwara Islands and the neig-hbouring- headland, 

 with which they were probably once continuous j 

 near this, too, the barrier reef of the coast ceases at 

 Low Island, which it encloses, althoug-h its line is 

 continued under water, as a rid^e of coral, as far as 

 the South-west Cape, where the coral ends, unless 

 the shoals apparently blocking- up the channel south 

 of Yule Island are of the same formation. 



Reference to the outline chart will enable the 

 reader to follow me in some general remarks which 

 did not properly enter into the narrative. The 

 Louisiade Archipelago, reduced to what I conceive 

 to be its natural limits, includes that extensive group 

 of islands comprised between the parallels of 10° 40' 

 and 11" 40' S. latitude, and the meridians of 151" 

 and 154° 30' E. longitude. About eighty are already 

 known, and probably nian}^ others remain yet to be 

 discovered in the north-west, a large space there 

 being as yet a blank upon the chart. All the islands 

 of the group, with the exception of the low ones of 

 coral formation to the westward, appear to be in- 

 habited, but probably nowhere very densely, judging 

 fi'om the comparatively small number of natives 

 which we saw, and the circumstance of the patches 

 of cultivation being small and scattered, while the 

 greater part of the large islands is either covered 

 with dense forest, or exhibits extensive grassy tracts 

 with lines and clumps of trees. Such of the islands 

 as were examined consisted of mica slate, the line of 

 direction of the beds of which is nearly the same as 



