84 



NATURE 



\7une 3, 1875 



Now, the total width of New Guinea is here 380 miles 

 only, and the I longest distance possible to go without 

 reaching the sea is just about 620 miles, which takes you 

 to the shores of Geelvinck Bay. 



The centre of New Guinea is about 6° S. of the 

 equator, and is almost certainly a forest region through- 

 out and abundantly watered. In this equatorial belt all 

 round the globe the temperature lis not excessive, 96° or 

 98" being the extreme daily limit, while the nights are 

 almost invariably cool (70° to 76°). The greater part of 

 the country here J described is, however, said to be open 

 plains with only occasional forest tracts ; water was not 

 found for a whole day's journey, even at the foot of a 

 mountain range 10,000 feet high, and the ordinary daily 

 temperature is said to have reached 106° to 109° and 115° 

 in the shade. He describes a terrific storm of hailstones 

 as large as hens' eggs, not on the mountains, but in the 

 low country about 7° S. latitude. 



His mode of travelling is as extraordinary as his geo- 

 graphy. After the statement that in the tropics " early 

 morning and evening are the only times when it is 

 possible to travel," he assures us that he started at 3 A.M., 

 and in the evening continued his journey till 9 P.M. This 

 gives two-and-a-half hours in the morning and the same at 

 night of total darkness, in an unknown, pathless, tropical 

 country, and he even ascends part of a dangerous mountain 

 full of fissures and huge rocks, till nine o'clock at night ! 

 The country, too, was full of venomous snakes ; and huge 

 scorpions a foot long, whose sting was certain death 

 were very abundant ; and as these last are nocturnal 

 animals, travelling in darkness among fissured rocks and 

 dense vegetation must have been exciting. But then we 

 are told that he carried a lanthorn, and by means of this 

 artificial illumination it is to be supposed the whole party 

 made good progress and baffled the scorpions. 



More marvellous still is the ascent of Mount Hercules, 

 32,783 feet high. He starts with one native from the foot 

 of the mountain at 4 A.M., carrying "food, water, arms, and 

 blankets," and ascends 14,000 feet by nine o'clock ! At 

 1 5,000 feet they came to snow, but continued on for many 

 thousand feet more, and by i P.M. had reached a height 

 of 25,314 feet, the temperature being 22° below freezing. 

 This is certainly good chmbing, as it is just 4,000 feet 

 higher than Chimborazo from the sea-level, and more 

 than twice as high as Mont Blanc is above Chamouni. 

 The Alpine Club must hide their diminished heads after 

 this. Of course, having turned back at one o'clock, our 

 travellers arrived safely at their camp at 7.30 p.m. A 

 tinted view of this wonderful mountain forms the frontis- 

 piece to the book. 



Having digested this Alpine feat as best we may, let 

 us turn to Capt. Lawson's account of the natural history 

 of the island. It may be premised, for the benefit of non- 

 zoological readers, that New Guinea belongs to the Aus- 

 tralian region, and that with the exception of bats and a 

 wild pig, all the known mammalia are marsupials, four 

 species of kangaroos, several species of Cusciis (an animal 

 somewhat like an opossum), and some smaller marsupial 

 forms being known. The coasts have been visited for 

 centuries, and considerable excursions have been made 

 in the interior of the northern part of the island, while 

 the southern portions have also been several times visited 

 by our various surveying parties. The islands all round 



it agree in this exclusion of all mammalia but marsupials. 

 But Capt. Lawson tells us quite a different tale. He met 

 with no solitary kangaroo or Cuscus all through New 

 Guinea, but he everywhere encountered deer of several 

 species, wild buffaloes, wild goats, wild cattle of a new 

 species, hares, foxes, a wonderful new tiger, long-tailed 

 monkeys, and huge man-like apes ! Of birds we have, 

 quite correctly. Cockatoos and Birds of Paradise, but 

 along with these, pheasants, woodpeckers, and vultures, 

 the two former not known within a thousand, the latter 

 within two thousand miles of New Guinea. The natives, 

 too, have great herds of hump-backed cattle, and far in 

 the interior many of them speak Dutch ! 



Hardly less absurd are Capt. Lawson's wonderful hunt- 

 ing feats and hairbreadth escapes. The monkeys of New 

 Guinea seem remarkable for waiting to be shot at, 

 although, as the natives have guns and shoot them for 

 food, they would in other countries have become wary. 

 Yet our author goes out with a native chief to shoot 

 monkeys, and in a couple of hours they bag a score and 

 wound several others. Again, in an hour's shooting he 

 kills "thirty-nine ducks, five ibises, two storks, seven king- 

 fishers, and three new birds." The deer are seen in 

 " herds of two or three hundred," the wild goats generally 

 go in " flocks of seventy or eighty ! " A herd of at least 

 ten thousand buffaloes .was seen, and in a single tree 

 more than a thousand hanging nests of one species of 

 bird were counted, each nest, too, containing several dis- 

 tinct famihes. Capt. Lawson is tossed and then trampled 

 on by a wild buffalo, and when recovered so that he could 

 " walk a few paces, leaning on the arm^ of one of his 

 attendants," he goes fishing, and in two hours " pulled out 

 over a hundred fish, the largest a yard long," not to men- 

 tion many large fish which broke away from the hook. A 

 huge New Guinea tiger gets him in its clutches, but 

 though the animal was larger than a Bengal tiger, he 

 of course escapes, though " drenched with the Moolah's 

 blood." He preserves the skin, which is " marked with 

 black and chestnut stripes on a white ground," and this 

 skin is "one of the few specimens he has succeeded 

 in bringing to Europe." Wonderful birds, snakes, and 

 insects are also described, sometimes very minutely, but 

 not one of them at all resembles any of the known deni- 

 zens of New Guinea. Here is a butterfly for example : 

 " The largest specimen I obtained, whose wings measured 

 exacdy twelve inches across, was black, with a red border 

 to the wings and red bands round the body. In the 

 centre of each wing were three light blue spots arranged 

 in a triangle. The body of this fly was as thick as 

 my thumb, and six inches in length. The feelers were 

 twelve inches in length, and curled into three coils." 



As if to complete his own refutation, our author states 

 that he returned to the coast with a party of natives who 

 were conveying, among other merchandise, skins of 

 " birds, monkeys, &c.," and that two or three Dutch 

 traders, as well as many Malays and Chinese, come there 

 every year. This part of New Guinea is therefore in 

 constant communication with the rest of the world, yet 

 the existence in the island of monkeys, apes, deer, buffaloes, 

 goats, and tigers, has remained totally unknown till the 

 secret was revealed to us by this enterprising and vera- 

 cious traveller. 



Alfred R. Wallace 



