INSULAR AUSTRALASIA. 



1213 



R. Wallace, F.R.G.S., author of the "Malay Archipelago," and other works, realized a 

 long cherished wish, and landed on the north coast of New Guinea. He lived at Dorey 

 for three months and a half, and was the first European whp ventured to live alone 

 and unprotected among the natives of New Guinea. He had some Malay servants, and 

 large collections of insects and birds were made through them, but Mr. Wallace himself 

 was prevented by sickness from travelling or collecting much. In 1861, he sent an 

 assistant, Mr. Charles Allen, to Sorong on the north-west extremity, whence he 

 penetrated fifteen or twenty miles into " the interior. Dr. N. de Miklouho Maclay, the 

 Russian savant and scientist, landed at Astrolabe Bay in 1871, and lived in that neigh- 

 bourhood altogether four years. He was an enthusiastic ethnologist, and chose to live 

 among the natives that he might become acquainted with their habits, and thoroughly 

 study the people themselves. In the north-west peninsula, the only travellers who have 

 penetrated at all into the interior are Signor D'Albertis, Dr. Beccari, Von Rosenberg 

 and Dr. A. B. Meyer. The A-rfak Mountains have proved the most fruitful field to 

 the explorer and naturalist. In 1872, Signor D'Albertis penetrated some twenty miles 

 inland to a village called Hatem. 

 He lived here, at an elevation of 

 three thousand five hundred feet, 

 for a month, and made a very large 

 and valuable collection of insects, 

 birds and plants of this mountain 

 region. Dr. A. B. Meyer was a 

 most successful traveller and ex- 

 plorer. He is one of the exceed- 

 ingly few men who have actually 

 crossed New Guinea. He succeeded 

 in doing this at the head of Mac- 

 Cluer Inlet, the narrowest part of 

 the Island. He had to cross a 

 mountain range two thousand feet 

 high, and was four days on his 

 journey, although the actual distance 

 on the chart is not more than 

 forty miles. He explored the whole 

 coast-line of Geelvink Bay, and 



many of its islands, and after crossing to the southern side went to Dorey, and from 

 there ascended the Arfak Mountains to a height of six thousand feet. Dr. Beccari, two 

 years later, ascended the same Mountain to a height of six thousand seven hundred 

 feet. He lived a month on the Mountain, and made very large collections in botany 

 and zoology. He travelled over a large area, visiting several mountains east of Sorong, 

 and explored several places on the coast, and all the islands in Geelvink Bay. More 

 recently, the south-east peninsula has occupied the largest share of attention from 

 travellers and naturalists. Signor D'Albertis took up his quarters at Yule Island, in 

 1875, and made several excursions upon the main-land opposite. He made very large 





A PORT MORESBY NE\V i,l IN! AN. 



