324 NEW GUINEA. [chap. 



either in luaniier or appearance. He could not read, but the 

 sight of the Sultan of Tidor's letter encased in its yellow silk 

 cover was sufficient, and he agreed to take charge of our men, 

 and if necessary to supply them with praus to take them to 

 Waigamma. 



The village of Efl^e is composed of four houses only, despite 

 the fact that it has been in existence for more than a hundred years. 

 It is placed in a grove of coconut palms, an uncommon sight in 

 Western New Guinea, where this most useful of trees is but rarely 

 met with, for even in those places where the Malays have estab- 

 lished themselves they seem to have paid Ijut little attention tt) 

 its cultivation. Looking to the south and east from the southern 

 shore, myriads of islands are seen to dot the water as far as the 

 eye can reach ; not low, irregular, and with temptmg sandy bays, 

 such as one sees in the little archipelagos in some parts of the 

 Philippines, or off the Bornean coast, but for the most part small, 

 square, and block-like ; devoid of beach and with perpendicular 

 or even overhanging cliffs, reminding us of the nests of islands 

 we had found in the Waigiou Gulf. All are of hard, ringing, 

 coralline limestone which here and there assumes the most fan- 

 tastic shapes, running up into wondrous spires and pinnacles like 

 some Gothic cathedral gone mad, — quaint and mipossible in 

 outline, and from its knife-like edges utterly destructive to one's 

 boots. 



Wliile making a rough survey of the harbour, we were as- 

 tonished to come across several Eucalyptus trees. Although 

 they extend as far westward as the Timor group, it is probable 

 that Misol is the extreme northern limit of this typically Australian 

 genus. Upon Efbe we found a rare black Lory {Chalcopsittacus) 

 rather abundant, closely resembling the species I have already alluded 

 to as having been obtained by us in Salwatti, but exhibiting such 

 differences in plumage as almost entitle it to separate specific rank. 

 Another interesting bird which we here added to our collection was 

 a large Graucalus {G. melanops), which had not previously been 



