MELANESIA 

 CHAPTEE XI 



NEW GUINEA AND THE PAPUANS 



Under the name of Melanesia we comprehend all the 

 islands and groups of islands stretching from ISTew Guinea 

 in the west to Viti or Fiji in the east ; that is to say, the 

 domain chiefly occupied by the Papuan race. The series 

 begins with New Guinea and its surrounding islands, 

 and the Admiralty Isles, New Britain, and New Ireland, 

 to the north-east. Proceeding still eastwards, or rather 

 to the south-east, we meet with the Solomon Islands, the 

 Santa Cruz or Queen Charlotte group, the New Hebrides, 

 the French settlements of New Caledonia and the Loyalty 

 Islands, and lastly, considerably farther east, the Fiji 

 Archipelago. 



The present chapter treats of New Guinea, and the 

 islands which are joined to it by a shallow sea, and have 

 evidently, at no distant period, formed with it one 

 extensive land. 



1. General. 



The great island of New Guinea or Papua stretches 

 in a N.N.W. and S.S.E. direction, beyond the Moluccan 



