54 PARIWAKA ISLAND. 



Stanley^ and not considered very satisfactory, were 

 repeated under more favourable conditions, but with 

 nearly tbe same result. This mountain, the highest 

 of the range of the same name, is somewhat 

 flat-topped (as viewed from our anchorage), about 

 six miles in length, and the mean of five observations 

 from different stations, gave 13,205 feet as the 

 height of the highest part above the level of the 

 sea. 



On the largest Pariwara Island, although 

 abundance of rain had fallen lately, there was no 

 water left in any pool or hole in the rock. Nor 

 although the soil, from the additional moisture, 

 looked darker and richer than during m}'^ former 

 visit in September, was there any perceptible im- 

 provement in the vegetation. A few fork-tailed red- 

 fronted swallows {Hirundo neoxena) were hawking 

 about, and a large yellow and black butterfly 

 (Pa2}ilio Epius, common in collections fi'om India 

 and China) was abundant. Many Torres Strait 

 pigeons were observed from the ship to resort 

 nightly to the second largest of the group, which is 

 covered with trees and seems quite inaccessible from 

 the steepness of its low chffs. On several successive 

 evenings about sunset, and until it became too dark 

 to distinguish them, immense numbers of frigate 

 bfrds were observed fl}Tng over Redscar Head, and 

 going out to the N.N.E. This being a gregarious 

 bird only when associated at a breeding place, and 

 there being no known sand-bank or islet in the 



