CHAPTER XXXIII. 



THE AKU ISLANDS.— PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY AND ASPECTS 



OF NATURE. 



TjST this chapter 1 propose to give a general sketch of the 

 physical geography of the Aru Islands, and of their 

 relation to the surrounding countries ; and shall thus be 

 able to incorporate the information obtained, from traders, 

 and from the works of other naturalists, with my own 

 observations in these exceedingly interesting and little- 

 known regions. 



The Aru group may be said to consist of one very large 

 central island with a number of small ones scattered round 

 it. The great island is called by the natives and traders 

 " Tana-biisar " (great or mainland), to distinguish it as a 

 whole from Dobbo, or any of the detached islands. It is 

 of an irregular oblong form, about eighty miles from north 

 to south, and forty or fifty from east to west, in which 

 direction it is traversed by three narrow channels, dividing 

 it into four portions. These channels are always called 



