NEW GUINEA AM) THE TAPUANS 417 



with the vast flats of the Fly Iliver l)asin ; l)iit near the 

 source of the latter, and not far iidiii the junction of the 

 boundaries of the three territories, rises the very ruj,'ged 

 and precipitous Victor Emmanuel range. It has not yet 

 Ijcen visited, but when sighted from the south by Sir 

 William Macgregor, appeared to consist of two distinct 

 chains, of which the northern is the higher, probably 

 attaining an elevation of from 10,000 to 12,000 feet. 

 Xo settlements have been made by the Germans between 

 the Kaiserin Augusta and their boundary at Humboldt 

 P,ay. 



The so-called Bismarck Archipelago has been known 

 longer than the coast of the neighbouring mainland, and 

 German traders have had posts on the Duke of York group, 

 which lies between ISTew Britain and New Ireland, since 

 1878. The two last named islands are the most im- 

 ])ortant in the archipelago, but are still very little known, 

 and the focus of German influence and exploration is 

 chiefly centred in the coasts and islands of the narrow 

 St. George's Channel which separates them. The head- 

 quarters of the New Guinea Company were until recently 

 at Mioko, on one of the small islands of the Duke of 

 York group, but owing to the unhealthiness of the site, and 

 for other reasons, it has been removed to Blanche Bay 

 in the north of New Britain. Although a more or less 

 deep sea separates the Bismarck Archipelago from New 

 Guinea, and they are thus, strictly speaking, not Papuan 

 islands, except from an ethnological point of view, they 

 will, for the sake of convenience, be presently described 

 under this heading. 



The aims of the New Guinea Company have been 

 chiefly agricultural. Tobacco, cotton, coffee, and cacao 

 liave all been grown with tolerable success, especially the 

 two first named. In Koustantinhafen 13,224 lbs. of 



2 E 



