MILNE BAY AND HYGEIA BAY. 717 



many expressions of regret and sailed away on board the "Ivanhoe" on October 12th. 

 With a fair wind we should have reached Saraarai or Dinner Island, the headquarters 

 of the Government in the Eastern Division of British New Guinea, within four days, 

 but contrary winds, squalls and calms delayed our arrival until October 25th. Here 

 I lost no time in procuring a small decked cutter, the "Mizpah," which at once 

 provided me with shelter and means of conveyance, although I was not so much in 

 need of the latter, having brought my boat from New Britain. But the need of 

 sleeping accommodation decided me to acquire the " Mizpah " and, on the whole, I had 

 no reason to regret the purchase. 



The shells of Nautilus are found in great numbers among the islands which compose 

 the eastern archipelago of New Guinea, and it was this information which induced me 

 to ascertain whether there might be any prospect of meeting with a more suitable 

 locality in these waters. It is a curious reflection that although Nautilus ranges over 

 a large part of the Indo-Pacific Ocean from the Philippines to the Fijis, at no point 

 within the sphere of British influence 1 is it available for practical investigation. Stray 

 specimens may be caught here and there but it is only to the Philippines, Moluccas, 

 Bismarck Archipelago or Loyalty Islands that we may look for the final solution of 

 the mystery surrounding the propagation of Nautilus. 



The natives of the country round Milne Bay and of the neighbouring islands are 

 not great fishermen and do not make elaborate fish-baskets, so that they contrast very 

 noticeably in this matter with the men of New Britain. Perhaps the reason for this 

 may be that animal food is more plentiful in the bush in New Guinea than in New 

 Britain, where pork may not be eaten by members of the tribal fraternity of the igiat. 

 Whatever the explanation may be, the fact remains that while the natives may be 

 seen fishing with a seine on the reefs, they neither employ the larger traps nor do 

 they know how to make them. 



I commenced operations in the D'Entrecasteaux Group, putting up a temporary 

 house on an uninhabited coral islet called Karuana, close to the important island of 

 Sanaroa 2 . This was a delightful spot and a capital site for a biological station, as 

 the surrounding seas contain numerous coral-patches. 



I explored Hygeia Bay on the coast of Fergusson Island. On this island the 

 natives were rather a wild-looking lot, such of them as came down to the beach. 

 They carried cosmetics and charms in bamboo 3 tubes, and some of them wore head- 

 ornaments or chaplets consisting of a fringe of yellow feathers (from the crest of the 

 cockatoo) rising from a border of red parrot feathers, closely resembling a similar 

 ornament used by some Indians of the Amazons region. 



I put down a basket here but the resulting captures of a small viviparous shark, 

 Crustacea, etc. offered little encouragement for Nautilus. There is an extensive reef at 



1 With the possible exception of the Fiji Islands from whence, so far as I know, no preserved specimens 

 have been sent either to Australia or to Europe, in spite of the existence of circumstantial accounts of the 

 methods employed by the natives to catch them. 



2 "Welle Island on the Charts. 



3 Bamboos do not occur in all parts of New Guinea and its dependencies, and those which grow on 

 Fergusson Island are a feeble variety in comparison with the bamboos of New Britain and elsewhere. 



94—2 



