4 NOTES ON A TRIP TO NEW GUINEA ; 
island had disappeared. Some of them had gone as recruits 
in the “labour trade”’ and never returned, others had fallen 
as victims of the white-men’s vices, and the remnant had 
removed to some other island. Here it was that I met with 
the white, or Torres Straits, pigeon (Carpophaga spilorrhoa, 
Gray), which is at times observed in these latitudes flying 
in such immense flocks from island to island. We next 
visited Dalrymple Island, the residence of Mr. Walker and 
“Yankee Ned,” who are engaged in fishing, and employ 
the natives of the place to help them in their pursuits. The 
wrecks of the ‘John de Cosa” and “ Fenstantin” are con- 
spicuous objects at Dalrymple Island, both fine ships being 
high and dry on the reefs. On the 6th October we passed 
Bramble Bay, and then sailed through the Gulf of Papua, 
making the mainland at Cape Possession on the 8th, and 
thence keeping along the Coast of New Guinea we arrived 
at Port Moresby on the 11th, and were soon boarded by 
Mr. Lawes, jun., the local custom-house and shipping officer, 
who delivered a printed budget of rules, regulations and 
cautions issued by the authorities. Port Moresby is certainly 
a fine harbour, but the land in the immediate neighbourhood 
of the shore is poor,and so abrupt and near are the 
surrounding limestone hills that there are no rivers or creeks 
running into it. Its northern division, however, known as 
Fairfax Harbour, is of somewhat different character. The 
shores of this portion are the site of five native villages, the 
inhabitants of which largely subsist by fishing. On the 
north side of Fairfax Harbour there is a plateau of land 
better adapted for the purposes of an English town or city 
than is that at present selected for the proposed capital. 
On the evening of the day of my arrival at Port Moresby 
I went ashore and visited Mrs. Lawes, so widely known 
for her hospitality to visitors to those shores. I also 
called officially on the Deputy Commissioner, Mr. Anthony 
Musgrave, jun., to whom | presented my passport and letters 
of introduction. Whilst walking through this missionary 
village, known as Anua-pata, I was much interested in 
observing the old women busily occupied in pounding clay 
in wooden troughs, and after pulverising it sufficiently, 
moulding it by means only of a flat stick and the hands into 
the form of spherical vessels with circular lips. These 
