Chap, xvii.] DRIFT WOOD. 



0/J 



between the Meangis and Tulur or Talaur Islands, south of the 

 Philippines. The ship was nearest to the Island of Kakarutan, 

 of the Meangis Group. The large hilly island of the Talaur 

 Group, Karekelang, was seen in the distance, covered with 

 forest, but with numerous patches of cultivation. 



A canoe, sharp at both ends and without outriggers, of the 

 Ke Island build, manned by 22 men and boys, came off to the 

 ship. The men wore turbans, like the Lutaos of Zamboanga, 

 and were many of them apparently of the same race, but 

 appeared to be a mongrel lot, and were very dirty-looking. 

 They did not, as far as we could ascertain, understand either 

 Malay, Spanish, or Dutch, but asked for tobacco. They brought 

 mats and very pretty blue and red Lories alive for sale. The 

 birds were secured to sticks by means of rings made of cocoa- 

 nut shell as at Amboina. The men did not chant or use drums 

 as they paddled. They had the Dutch flag flying. 



Drift Wood from the Ambernoh River, New Guinea, 

 February 22nd, 1875. — On February 22nd, at noon, the ship 

 was about 70 miles north-east of Point D'Urville, New Guinea, 

 where the great Ambernoh River, the largest river in New 

 Guinea, runs into the sea.* This river probably rises in the 

 Charles Louis Mountains, on the opposite side of New Guinea, 

 which reach up to the great altitude of 16,700 feet. So large 

 is this river, that even at this great distance from its mouth, 

 we found the sea blocked with the drift wood brought down 

 by it. 



We passed through long lines of drift wood disposed in 

 curves at right angles to the direction in which lay the river's 

 mouth. The ship's screw had to be constantly stopped for fear 

 it should be fouled by the wood. The logs had evidently not 

 been very long in the water, being covered only by a few young 

 Barnacles {Balamis) and Hydroids. Amongst the logs were 

 many whole uprooted trees. I saw one of these of which the 

 stem was two feet in diameter. 



The majority of the pieces were of small wood, branches and 

 small stems. The bark was often floating separately. The 

 midribs of the leaves of some pinnate-leaved palm were 

 abundant and also the stems of a large cane grass, like that 

 so abundant on the shore of the great river (Wai Levu) in Fiji 

 {Saccharum). One of these cane stems was 14 feet in length, 

 and from 1=^ to 2 inches in diamster. 



Various fruits of trees and other fragments were abundant, 

 usually floating confined in the midst of the small aggregations 



* The mouth of the river, which is hned with Casuarina-trces, was 

 passed by Rosenberg on his way to Humboldt Bay in 1862. " Nat. Tydsch. 

 voor Neder. Indie." Deel. XXIV., p. 334. Batavia, 1862. 



