GEOGRAPHICAL PROGRESS AND DISCOVERY. 



411 



jaw of the kangaroo is also a very nso- 

 ful tun], which is employed in curving and dec- 

 orating the bones of the emu, of which they 

 makr combs, forks, etc. These people are ex- 

 rot -ilingly vain nnd fond of their ornaments ot 

 foath.M-s, mussel-shells, and grasses, their neck- 

 laces and bracelets. The chiefs wear breast- 

 1 >liit os of mother-of-pearl mussel-shells. The 

 beard- and body-hairs are plucked out by the 

 roots, by twisting threads around each hair. 

 They tattoo themselves with care; the chiefs 

 and the women are tattooed all over. Their 

 infants are carried in sacks of netting. They 

 are fond of public discussions, and listen for 

 hours to one of their village orators as he di- 

 lates upon the events of the day ; and when 

 his harangue is finished another will rise and 

 respond. They are always in the mood to 

 talk, to laugh, or to dance. When they have 

 had remarkably good luck in the chase, or 

 have made an unusually large catch of fish, it 

 is the custom to invite the people of a neigh- 

 boring village to a feast, at which they appear 

 in their finest ornaments, the feathers of the 

 bird-of-paradise, necklaces of shells and moth- 

 er-of-pearl, artificial flowers made of feathers 

 and shell, and the highly treasured tail of the 

 kingfisher. The sons of chiefs drill the boys 

 in hurling the spear. In the same vicinity were 

 three other villages which were almost cities 

 in size. The street in Mou was covered with 

 white sand. The huts and mareaa were built 

 with a variety of designs and ornamented with 

 wood-carvings and paint: lizards, doves, and 

 human figures with bird-claws were some of 

 the decorative designs. D'Albertis supposes 

 the inhabitants of Yule Island and the coasts 

 to the eaat and westward, who belong to a 

 race entirely distinct from the Papuans, to 

 have invaded the island and driven the latter 

 back into the mountains. They are physically 

 and morally superior to the Papuans of the 

 western peninsula and the mixed races of the 

 interior. Their hair is chestnut-brown, their 

 eyes of a clear brown, and their skins of a 

 chocolate color, which is deeper in the parts 

 exposed to the sun. The height of the men is 

 5 feet 6 inches to 5 feet 9 inches; of the wo- 

 men, 5 feet 4 inches to 5 feet 6 inches. Their 

 hair is curly, but never woolly like that of the 

 Papuans. The lips are usually well formed ; 

 the chins and foreheads recede ; the limbs and 

 body are muscular and symmetrical. The 

 sexual differences are very salient. Each vil- 

 lage has three or four chiefs, who exercise a 

 sort of feudal lordship, and who differ from 

 the rest in build and appearance. The temper 

 of these people is kind and peaceable. They 

 are not remarkably courageous. They are 

 very sensitive and quick to take offense, bnt 

 easily conciliated again. Quarrels between 

 husbands and wives are frequent. In some 

 of the villages the women have the tipper 

 hand. The men and women are both industri- 

 ous, the latter doing the lighter kinds of work. 

 They carry on commerce among each other to 



some extent, holding markets for sale and bar- 

 ter at certain seasons. Theft is unknown. To 

 what race these gentle and intelligent savages 

 belong can not be determined with certainty. 

 They have many of the characteristics of the 

 Polynesians, and yet differ from them in im- 

 portant marks. 



Raffray, the French naturalist who spent 

 about a year on the northern peninsula of the 

 island of New Guinea, describes the Papuans 

 of the Arfak Mountains as of a very greedy 

 and covetous disposition. Fie says that they 

 are also cannibals. The same traveler visited 

 the Molucca Islands, where he observed that 

 the fauna differs on each of the islands, the 

 birds and insects on Ternate, Tidor, and Gilolo 

 belonging to completely distinct though allied 

 species. 



ARCTIC EXPLORATION.* The geographical 

 event of the year has been the successful ter- 

 mination of Professor Nordenskjold's expedi- 

 tion in search of the northeast passage. We 

 begin the narrative at the point where it was 

 left in the " Annual Cyclopaedia " for 1878. 

 The Vega arrived September 27, 1878, near 

 the promontory which bounds Koljutchen Bay 

 on the east. During the day the ship passed 

 through several patches of newly formed ice, 

 but the temperature was very little below 

 zero, while the weather was calm and fine. 

 On the 28th the Vega proceeded under steam, 

 intending to take advantage of a narrow open 

 channel, which, on the previous day, had been 

 observed to extend between the shore and the 

 masses of drift-ice which were beginning al- 

 ready to press closely upon the promontory. 

 When little more than a mile to the east- 

 ward the water became muddy, nor could 

 deeper water be found among the drift-ice, 

 which during the night had become firmly 

 bound together by newly formed ice. All at- 

 tempts at further progress were fruitless, until 

 a southerly wind should disperse the ice which 

 barred the way. The position of the Vega 

 was by no means a safe one. She lay frozen 

 in, but not anchored, in a roadstead quite ex- 

 posed to the north, and only moored to a mass 

 of ground-ice which had stranded in a depth 

 of about thirty feet of water and about three 

 quarters of a mile distant from land. This 

 iceberg was the vessel's only protection against 

 the enormous ice-pressure which winter storms 

 produce in the polar seas. It was about three 

 hundred feet long, eighty feet broad, and its 

 highest point rose twenty feet above the level 

 of the sea. During the fierce storms which 

 assailed the vessel in the autumn and winter, 

 the ship, the ground-ice, and the sheet of new- 

 ly formed ice in which she was held fast, were 

 all moved together considerably nearer the 

 shore. The spot where the Vega was frozen 

 in is situated in latitude 67 7' N., longitude 

 173 30' W. from Greenwich. The neighbor- 

 ing land was a wide, undulating plain, bounded 



* The following 1 section on Arctic explorations U from the 

 pen of Captain H . W. Howgate, U. 8. A. 



