ANCHOR AT ERROOB. lG ( J 



was a large figure of a bird, with an immense toothed 

 bill, the eyes and some other parts cut out of mother- 

 of-pearl, neatly inlaid. It was altogether two and 

 a half feet high, and by no means badly designed 

 or executed. Where they could have seen the bird 

 we could not conjecture, but it bore a very great 

 resemblance to a horn-bill, and it was probably 

 meant to represent one of those birds, which very 

 likely inhabit the neighbouring part of New Guinea. 



March 28, 1845. — We anchored to-day on the 

 west side of Darnley Island, or Erroob as it is called 

 by its inhabitants, and by which name I shall desig- 

 nate it for the future. We came to, about half a 

 mile from the shore, in eighteen fathoms water, 

 opposite a small village called Keriam, with the 

 peak of the island bearing east-south-east, but 

 afterwards found a rather more commodious anchor- 

 age in Treacherous Bay, a little further to the 

 north-east, opposite another small plantation called 

 Beeka. 



Erroob was quite different in appearance from all 

 the other islands we had seen, except Murray 

 Island. It was lofty and broken, rising more than 

 500 feet above the sea, but covered with vege- 

 tation, and exhibiting none of the bare rocky mounds 

 characteristic of the granite islands about Mount 

 Ernest. We afterwards found that, together with 

 the group of the Murray Islands, it had a distinctive 

 geological structure, being of volcanic origin, while 

 the line of islands between Cape York and Mount 

 Cornwallis are all granitic or old metamorphic 



