BY WILLIAM E, ARMIT, F.L.S., F.R.G.S. 79 
who visited the South Sea Islands and New Guinea on behalf 
of the National- Museum of Berlin in 1882. I intend here to 
give a resume of the leading observations of Wallace, D‘Albertis, 
and Finsch, their deductions and conclusions, and to add my own 
experiences in the different portions of the islands visited. This 
will give enquirers and students the leading facts, as | 
far as at present known to us, in a concise form, and enable 
them to compare them with their own observations or those 
of subsequent observers. It must be understood that I do not 
claim any undue importance for these notes as it will be 
patent to all, that many and more extended researches will have 
to be undertaken before any definite idea can be formed as to 
the origin of the Papuans as a race; which are the typical 
descendants of the original inhabitants of New Guinea, and 
what causes have led to the remarkable divergences from 
that type, which the explorer meets with wherever he may 
turn his footsteps. 
Mr. A. R. Wallace? places the boundary line between the 
Malays and Papuans in the Island of Gilolo. In the vicinity of 
Sahoe he found a people differing in many respects from the 
Malays. These people were known as “ Alfuros,’’ and he des- 
cribes them thus :—‘ Their stature and their features as well as 
their disposition and habits are almost the same as those of the 
Papuans ; their hair is semi-Papuan—neither straight, smooth, 
and glossy, like all true Malays, nor so frizzly and woolly as the 
perfect Papuan type, but always crisp, waved, and rough, such 
as often occurs among the true Papuans, but never among the 
Malays. Their colour alone is often exactly that of the Malay, 
or even lighter. Of course there has been intermixture, and 
there occur, occasionally, individuals which it is difficult to 
classify ; but in most cases, the large somewhat aquiline nose, 
with elongated apex, the tall stature, the waved hair, the 
The Malay Archipelago, 1 Vol. Edition, 1872; pp. 316-17. 
