NA TV RE 



\_Bcr. 1 6, 1880 



of additional workmen employed in charging the retorts, 

 interest upon additional capital required for transit 

 appliances, and the terms to be made with the gas 

 companies for carrying out the scheme.' 



I cannot close without acknowledging the help I have 

 received from Mr. Wallace, the gas manager at Woolwich 

 Arsenal, and the valuable information obtained from ISlr. 

 Field's tabulated accounts of the London gas companies. 

 So far as I am aware my contributions to the Bhi/i/l/- 

 and elsewhere are the only writing on the subject of my 

 scheme that has ever been made public. 



W. D. Scott Moncrieff 



Westminster, December 13 



NEIV GUINEA ^ 



OF the few travellers who have attempted to explore 

 the great island of New Guinea, Signer D'Albertis 

 must undoubtedly be considered the chief, since he alone 



has made extensive and repeated journeys both in the 

 north-western and the south-eastern pans of the island, and 

 has thus been able to examine and compare some of the 

 most distinct tribes or races which inhabit the country. 

 The narrative of his travels has therefore been looked for 

 with some interest, for though several of his journeys 

 have been more or less fully described in newspapers and 

 magazines, it was felt that much must remain to be told, 

 and that so energetic a traveller would probably be able 

 to throw some fuller light on the hitherto doubtful 

 affinities and relations of the Papuan races. 



Leaving Genoa in November, 1871, in company with 

 the well-known traveller and botanist Dr. Beccari, and 

 making short excursions in Java and the Moluccas, our 

 travellers hired a small schooner at Amboyna in March, 

 1S73, to take them to Outanata, on the south coast of 

 New Guinea ; and after some delays at Coram seeking a 

 pilot and interpreter, on April 9 D'Albertis records in his 

 journal ; " A memorable day ! At last I tread the mys- 



terious land. At last, leaping on shore this morning, I 

 exclaimed, ' We are in New Guinea ! ' " 



Finding no safe or convenient place to stay at on the 

 south coast, they proceeded to Sahvati and fixed their 

 abode for some time at Sorong, a small island close to the 

 north-western extremity of the main land of Papua. From 

 this point they made excursions into the interior, and 

 D'Albertis resided some time at the inland village of Ramoi, 

 where he was near dying of dropsy and fever. They then 

 went in a native vessel to Dorey Harbour, where they 

 arrived in August, and sttled themselves at Andai Village, 



ing power of the fuel 

 ling which takes place c 



^ By experiment I find that the greraer 

 excess of the coke more than makes up for th; 

 account of the more frequent charging of the 



» " New Guinea : What I Did and What I Jaw." By L. M. D'Albi 

 Officer of the Order of the Crown of Italy, &c.. &c In two volu 

 (London : Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, and Rivingtcn, i88c.) 



where a German missionary resides. Here they had a 

 house built, which was their headquarters till November, 

 and D'Albertis succeeded in spending some weeks at 

 Hatara, a village on Mount Arfak, about 3500 feet above 

 the sea, and in the midst of the forests inhabited by the 

 finest and rarest of the birds of paradise. On the very 

 day after his arrival here be shot both the shielded and 

 the six-shafted paradise-birds {Lophorina atra and Parotia 

 stxpan.is), two species which had certainly never before 

 been seen alive or freshly killed by any European ; and 

 before he left this spot he obtained many other rare 

 species, besides an altogether new and beautiful kind, 

 which has been named Drepnnoniis albcrtisii. 



Constant attacks of fever and dropsy, however, reduced 

 him to such a state of weakness that it was absolutely 

 necessary to seek a change of climate, and returning to 



