56 THE ZOOLOGIS'T. 
while marking the countries which they inhabit and the limits 
which appear set to their geographical distribution. We have 
felt the changes of climate as we travelled; and having followed 
the explanation of all we have witnessed, so attractively and 
withal so logically offered by our guide, we leave him with a 
feeling of regret that our voyage of discovery has ended. 
New Guinea: what I did and what I saw. By L. M. D’Atpertis. 
Two vols., 8vo, with four coloured plates and numerous 
woodcuts. London: Sampson Low & Co. 1880. 
TxHosE who follow the course of events in the Natural History 
world have been for some time aware that Signor D’Albertis has 
been engaged in exploring New Guinea. ‘The reports of his 
progress and of his collections received by the Zoological Society 
of London, and published also in Italian and other foreign 
scientific journals, have awakened the liveliest interest, more 
especially among ornithologists and entomologists, and have 
served to whet the appetite for a fuller account of his travels 
whenever this should appear. 
In two handsome volumes, with several nicely executed 
coloured plates and many woodcuts, Messrs. Sampson Low, 
Marston and Co., have just published the long-expected work, 
and English readers are now put in possession of the Italian 
traveller’s narrative of his adventures. ‘This he gives us in the 
form of a journal, the first volume containing an account of his 
voyage to New Guinea in 1872-73, and his visit to Yule Island in 
1875; the second volume embodying the results of his three 
explorations of the Fly River, made in 1875, 1876, and 1877. 
When, on the 8th April, 1872, the author first sighted New 
Guinea, he found himself approaching a mountainous country, 
overgrown with dense forest. The hills, whose base was washed 
by the sea, seemed to rise up as barriers to defend the entrance 
of the country which he proposed to explore. Behind these hills 
rose other and higher mountains; but all, so far as he could 
perceive, were clothed with rich vegetation. From Sorong to 
Dorey—that is to say, during a coasting voyage of 200 miles—he 
not only discovered no great river, but not even one that could 
be considered of any importance. 
