NEW GUINEA. 49 



it is much less likely than for many other of its more common congeners, and 



yet these do not seem to have attained to anything like so wide a range. We 



find Gekko monarchus on Mysol, Ke, and Aru, and its distribution suggests at 



once that it is really a very ancient species indeed, though the form is not one 



which offers other evidence of its antiquity. 



The amphibians are purely Papuan, and number eight. Microbatrachus 



pusillus Roux represents a genus and species peculiar to the group, but one 



which will probably in time be found on New Guinea. The only other local 



form is Sphenophryne mertoni Roux. Curiously enough Cornufer corrugatus 



has not yet been found, though it probably exists still undiscovered along with 



other species. 



/ 

 New Guinea. 



The enormous island of New Guinea lies directly south of the equator, 

 with its northwest projection at 131 degrees east of Greenwich, and its southwest 

 end at 151 degrees; so that the island is something over 1,200 miles long, while 

 it varies in width from a narrow neck of land, where the McClure Gulf cuts 

 almost through to the Wandamman Bay — a distance of only about twelve 

 miles — to the width of almost 400 miles at the points where the 139th and the 

 142nd parallels cross the island. As everyone knows, the interior of the island 

 is still largely unexplored. Various expeditions have searched the Arfak moun- 

 tains in the northwest, and are now at work upon the Charles Louis and the 

 Snow Mountains in the southwestern portion; while in British New Guinea, 

 southeast, and German New Guinea, northeast, various expeditions have brought 

 back important collections from the different mountain ranges. It was doubted 

 for many years whether the reports that snow mountains existed were true. 

 Recently they have been found both by Dutch and by British expeditions, and 

 their great height — over 17,000 feet — verified. Still the great central area 

 of the land, lying along the Dutch boundary, is entirely unknown. 



A word regarding the political divisions of the island, as they will be spoken 

 of often. All land west of the 141st parallel is Dutch. The remainder, to the 

 eastward, is divided between Germany and England, the British possessing 

 the Torres Strait region, a zone rather larger than that held by the Germans 

 on the Pacific coast. 



The fauna is distinctive in all groups of animals. It is not purely Australian, 

 as formerly was supposed. To be sure, a number of species occur in common 

 with Australia, and a still larger number of genera; but the range in Australia 



