MEW GUINEA AND THE J'AllANS 415 



desires. Mucli pumice is found along- the coast, and the 

 cliffs opposite Eook Island are of basaltic i'orniation, and 

 reach a height of 1000 feet. 



Between this point and Astrolabe Bay lies the 

 " Maclay Coast," so called after the liussian explorer 

 Miklukho Maklai. It is thinly inhabited, and is believed 

 to have no good harbour. The entire country between 

 Huou Gulf and Astrolabe Bay is composed of much 

 elevated, broken, and precipitous land, and comprises 

 three ranges of great altitude. The most northerly are 

 the Finisterre Mountains, whose eastern peaks culminate 

 in Moimt Disraeli and Mount Gladstone, both of which 

 are over 11,000 feet. The summits of the Kratke range, 

 lying immediately to the south, vary from ll,000tol2,000 

 feet, and these are believed to be again surpassed by the 

 Bismarck range, which lies not far from the Anglo- 

 German boundary, and is reported to be snow-covered. 

 Some of its peaks are known to exceed 15,000 feet. 



Astrolabe Bay contains the two stations Konstantin- 

 hafen and Stephansort, which are about 10 miles apart, 

 the latter lying at the head of the bay. Konstantin- 

 hafen was badly chosen, having neither protection nor 

 anchorage. It was in this bay in 1871 that IMiklukho 

 Maklai built his house and lived among the natives for 

 more than a year. He found them tolerably peaceable, 

 but in as low a state of civilisation as any race on the 

 globe. Numeration often did not extend beyond the 

 number one, iron was unknown, and the old men of the 

 tribe spoke of fire as having only been recently intro- 

 duced. Even then they were unable to make it, and if 

 by any chance their hearths became simultaneously ex- 

 tinct, which from the smallness of the villages seems to 

 have been a not unfrequent occurrence, they had to 

 journey to the next settlement to relight them. The 



