424 THE BIRDS OF PARADISE. [ch. xxxviii. 



days' journey in the interior, among rugged mountains, 

 and that the skins were prepared by savage tribes 

 who had never even been seen- by any of the coast 

 people. 



It seems as if Nature had taken precautious tliat these 

 her choicest treasures should not be made too common, 

 and thus be undervalued. This northern coast of New 

 Guinea is exposed to the full swell of the Pacific 

 Ocean, and is rugged and harbourless. The country is all 

 rocky and mountainous, covered everywhere with dense 

 forests, offering in its swamps and precipices and serrated 

 ridges an almost impassable barrier to the unknown 

 interior ; and the people are dangerous savages, in the 

 very lowest stage of barbarism. In such a country, and 

 among such a people, are found these wonderful produc- 

 tions of Nature, the Birds of Paradise, whose exquisite 

 beauty of form and colour and strange developments of 

 plumage are calculated to excite the wonder and admira- 

 tion of the most civilized and the most intellectual of 

 mankind, and to furnish inexhaustible materials for 

 study to the naturalist, and for speculation to the philo- 

 sopher. 



Thus ended my search after these beautiful birds. Five 

 voyages to different parts of the district they inhabit, each 

 occupying in its preparation and execution the larger part 

 of a year, produced me only five species out of the fourteen 



