SUVA, ON NAVITILEVU ISLAND, THE CAPITAL OF THE FIJIS. 



INSULAR AUSTRALASIA. 



NEW GUINEA. 



XT EW GUINEA has an area of three hundred and six thousand square miles. It 

 -^ ^ is about one thousand four hundred and ninety miles long, and four hundred and 

 thirty broad, in its widest part. It is separated from Australia by Torres Straits, which 

 are only eighty miles across. The shallowness of the water shows that at some time 

 irt the world's history it was united to Australia, the average depth being only eight 

 or nine fathoms, while the greatest does not exceed twenty fathoms. 



The form of New Guinea is very irregular. It possesses a north-western and a 

 south-western peninsula, with a large central mass. The first appearance of the Island 

 from almost every point of approach, is that of a bold mountainous country. The 

 Charles Louis is the highest range on the Island, attaining a height of nearly seventeen 

 thousand feet. The Owen Stanley Range, with the picturesque Mountain of the same 

 name, and Mount Yule, are fine landmarks, visible far out to sea. The mountains of 

 the north-west peninsula are : Mount Arfak, ten thousand feet high, and a ridge some 

 one thousand two hundred feet high, at the head of the MacCluer Inlet ; while the 

 whole of the peninsula south of the Inlet seems -to be a mass of mountains. New 

 Guinea has a coast-line of about four thousand four hundred miles, comprising innumer- 

 able bays and inlets. Towards the north-west end, the Island is almost cut in two by 



