320 ARU. 



shaped wristlets made of plaited fibres (of Pandanus ?), yellow 

 and black worked into a pattern. 



These bracelets of the Aru Islanders were ornamented with 

 European shirt buttons in lieu of the small ground-down shells 

 {^Neritina) used at New Guinea and in the Admiralty Islands 

 for the same purpose. The buttons came, no doubt, from the 

 Chinese traders, and probably the natives thought they were 

 intended for this purpose, as they look not so very much 

 unlike the shells. The men had a number of leaf buckets full 

 of sago, ready prepared, and we saw their rude kneading-trough 

 and strainers of palm fibre, in a swamp close by. 



The trees are excessively high and large in the Aru forests. 

 To a botanical collector, with no time to spare, such a forest is 



HOUSE OF BACK-COUNTRY NATIVES, WOKAN ISLAND. 



a hopeless problem. Only the few low-growing plants can be 

 gathered, and the orchids and ferns that hang on the stems 

 low down, especially along the coast. A few palms can be 

 cut down. The flowers and fruits of the trees, the main 

 features of the vegetation, and those most likely to prove of 

 especial interest, are far out of reach. 



The trees cannot be cut down. It would take a day at least 

 to fell one. The only hope is to lie on one's back and look for 

 blossoms or fruit with a binocular glass, and then try and shoot 

 a branch down. Very often, however, the trees are far too high 

 for that, and then the matter must be given up altogether. 



Growing on some of the high trees in Wokan Island, I saw 

 most enormous Stag's-horn ferns {Platy cerium). I certainly 

 imagined they must be at least eight feet in the height of the 

 fronds. I could not reach any but very small specimens. 



