BRITISH NEW GUINEA. 423 



important discoveries were made, and the details brought to 

 light of that which formerly was very imperfectly known. 

 An active volcano was discovered in the crown of Mount 

 Victory, and several important features in the coastal forma- 

 tion were revealed. This part of New Guinea was some 

 time ago associated with an unhappy occurrence, one of the 

 native villages being entered and ])lundered of its store of 

 ethnological objects, comprising implements of warfare and 

 domestic utensils. But it will be gratifying to all true lovers 

 of science and humanity to learn that one of the chief 

 objects of Sir William MacGregor's visit was the restoring 

 of these stolen articles to their rightful owners. 



Generally speaking the coast line apportions itself into 

 three great indentations known by the names of Goodenough, 

 Collingwood, and Dyke Acland Bays, of little importance, 

 however, to maritime enterprise as shelters to traders, cruisers, 

 or the more s])acious ships of Her Majesty's Navy. The 

 coastal waters being studded with hidden dangers are not 

 favourable to navigation nor attractive enough to induce 

 pleasure-seekers to risk life and property in obtaining further 

 information of their natural conditions. The greater part of 

 this coastal country is of a mountainous character, especially 

 so in the most easterly region, where mountains throw their 

 outliers to the very water's edge, and the island, narrowing 

 and shooting out, forms the long peninsula terminating in 

 East Cape. This general aspect is, however, somewhat 

 modified as the Anglo-German boundary is approached, 

 where fertile valleys and open plains are at places met with. 

 In places the country bordering upon the seashore is swampy 

 and the soil sour ; but this is by no means a characteristic 

 feature, nor one likely to impede settlement. A remarkable 

 feature in the coastline is the absence of even moderately sized 

 rivers, a singularity that one is apt to view with astonishment. 

 A glance, however, at the general topography of the country 

 will effectually explain the phenomenon, for we see that the 

 rugged and steep features of the landscape leave no drainage 

 area of sufficient magnitude to create rivers of any importance. 

 In character the vegetation of this region assumes no remark- 

 able features, the foreshore being fringed with the usual ever- 

 green mangroves, and the background clothed with the weird 

 casuarina and the ordinary forest trees. In places the sago 

 palm groAvs in the congenial swamps, and the majestic wavy 

 head of the coco-palm towers over all other forms of vegeta- 

 tion, In the neighbourhood of villages, where these grow in 



