GENERAL CHARACTERS OF THE COUNTRY. 



1. TOPOGRAPHY. 



The north-west coast of New Guinea is bleak, mountainous, and sparsely 

 inhabited. The mountains, from 5000-7000', rise abruptly from the sea, 

 there being little sloping foreground and few small bays to shelter 



FIG. 1. 



N.W. NEW GUINEA. 



the schooners and Papuan praus, which only trade during the favourable 

 inonsun. There is no good anchorage tor large boats between Sorong, an 

 island on the extreme north-west, the first point of call, and Dorei Bay, 

 a fine harbour, consisting of two bays, sheltered by the islands of Mansinam 

 and the much smaller Meoswar. A low mangrove spit, on which a Papuan 



