434 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION E. 



of some 200ft. in height, it was decided to estahlish a station for 

 the nse of the Government Resident Magistrate. The inhabitants 

 of this region Hve a wretched life of nncertainty and unrest, 

 being constantly terrorised Ijy the Tugei'i tribe, who, approaching 

 from the westward, annually fall ujion these people and massacre 

 both men, women, and children. It was noticed that the 

 Kiwai Island dialect was understood as far west as the Island 

 of ISaibai. No natives, nor signs of human habitation, were 

 met with from the Maikussa delta to within 70 or 80 miles 

 of the Anglo-Dutch boundary, the whole of this vast unoccupied 

 region being chiefly remarkable for its low uninteresting character 

 and extensive mangrove foreshore. While examining the coast 

 line Sir William MacGregor discoveretl an impoitant river, 

 disemboguing into Heath Bay, in latitude 9deg. 15min. S., 

 longitude 14ldeg. 30min. E. To this stream the name of 

 More head River was given, in honour of the Hon. B. D. 

 Morehead, late Chief Secretary of Queensland. It is a fine 

 watercourse of some 200yds, broad and })robably five fathoms 

 in depth at its mouth. The country in the neighbourhood of 

 its lower reaches is swampy and unattractive, being clothed 

 with dense forest, mangroves, and other varieties of vegetation, 

 upon which the eye is constrained to rest in the absence of a 

 brighter landscape. Above this region the river assumes the 

 form of continuous lagoons and swamps, so that no defined 

 banks mark the limit of the stream. These swamps are the 

 haunts of wild pigmy geese, catfish, and crocodiles. Some 

 natives were seen and heard, but all efforts to induce them to 

 hold intercourse with the explorers failed. Their outi'iggerless 

 canoes, dug out of hard dark wood with stone adzes, measured 

 about 20fl:. long. In their gardens, which were neatly culti- 

 vated, grew two varieties of sugar-cane and patches of taro. 

 On the higher reaches of the river the natives were somewhat 

 less shy, and afler very tedious parleying they were induced to 

 hold brief intercourse with the visitors. Theii" language being 

 entirely different from that spoken by other known tribes was 

 not understood by the explorers. 



When in the neighbourhood of the Anglo-Dutch boundary 

 the expedition was much gratified to meet a camp of repre- 

 sentatives of the notorious Tugeri tribe. Physically they are 

 equal to any other known tribe of the Possession, being of singu- 

 larly robust appearance, with light brown skin and hazel eyes. 

 Theii' heads, which are prominent and well formed, were adorned 

 by frizzly hair, plaited into long pendants with the lower ends 

 thereof formed into small balls hanging down upon the neck of 



