NEW GUINEA AND THE PAPUANS 387 



" Port Moresby JkMls," which consist of sandy limestones 

 and fine-grained calcareous shales, seem to be the most 

 widely evident rocks of the Tertiary period on the 

 southern coast of British New Guinea. The mountainous 

 regions in the interior of this territory appear, with the 

 exception of the district around ]\Iount Yule, to be com- 

 posed of metamorphic rocks, principally of schists, be- 

 coming more highly metamorphosed as the higher altitudes 

 are reached. These slates and schists of undetermined 

 age are very conspicuous in the D'Entrecasteaux and 

 Louisiacle groups, in which islands the only " payable " 

 gold yet found in New Guinea was discovered in 1888. 

 The igneous rocks, as already mentioned, occupy a con- 

 siderable area, but that they are not necessarily of any 

 very great age is shown by the fact that they rest in 

 many instances on the most recent strata. The forma- 

 tions in the interior from Gape Burn (long. 185° E.) are 

 believed to be Jurassic limestones and dolomites. 



Of the useful minerals in New Guinea not much is as 

 yet known. Various causes have rendered exploration 

 and prospecting a matter of great difficulty. The 

 Germans appear, like the Dutch, to have paid little 

 attention to the resources of their great possessions in 

 this I'cspect, and our knowledge is chiefly confined to the 

 work of a few geologists and prospectors in British terri- 

 tory. Although traces of gold are obtainable in most of 

 the rivers of the south coast, no reefs have been dis- 

 covered. In 1888 the gold-fields of Sudest Island were 

 opened, and in a few montlis about 800 Australian 

 dio'o-ers were engaged. The diggings were all alluvial, 

 and although some thousands of ounces of gold were won, 

 the field was worked out in a few months. A little 

 later St. Aignan was found to yield paying gold, but the 

 same result occurred. It is very probable that further 



