PARIWARA ISLANDS. 293 



trees^ probably a Bombax or Erythrina, — at this 

 time destitute of leaves^ — on the other is a hi^h bare 

 rock with three other small detached^ needle-shaped 

 ones lying' off it. The observations with the 

 theodolite having' been completed we obtained some 

 soundings and returned to the ship. 



The view we had to-day from the Pariwara 

 Islands was not so interesting as I had expected. 

 The shores of the bay stretching to the northward 

 of Redscar Head for many miles are low and 

 covered with tall trees behind a strip of sandy 

 beach. At the back of the point in the corner of 

 the bay, we saw an opening two hundred yards wide, 

 with tall mangroves on the northern bank, appa- 

 rently one of the mouths of a river traversing- the 

 great extent of low wooded country behind. A 

 very large fire two or three miles behind the beach, 

 sending up great volumes of smoke, might have 

 been intended for a signal, but neither canoes nor 

 natives were seen during our absence from the ship. 



Sept. 24cth. — A canoe with twelve young men 

 and lads came off from the shore, and approached 

 within two hundred yards of the ship, but although 

 tempted by the exhibition of a large piece of red 

 cloth, they would come no closer. Their visit was 

 apparently prompted by mere curiosity as they had 

 nothing to barter with. These natives closely 

 resembled the other Papuans seen to the eastward, 

 but were smaller in statm'e, and wore the hair 

 frizzled up into a mop projecting backwards, nor had 



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