DELTA OF A LARGE RIVER. 289 



moister climate altogether, but that the character of 

 the seasons is reversed; the S.E. monsoon being 

 a wet season and the N.W. a dry one. 



We had now examined, more or less closely, 

 about 140 miles of the coast of New Guinea, being 

 just that part also which was most dangerously 

 situated, most exposed to the prevailing winds, and 

 to the swell of the open sea. From the large opening 

 or river mouth in S. lat. 8° 45', E.long. 143° 35', to 

 the farthest point examined in the boats in lat. 

 7° 40', and long. 144° 30', and for an unknown 

 distance beyond that point, the coast had every where 

 the same features. It was low, flat, muddy, covered 

 with jungle and impenetrable forests, and intersected 

 in every direction by a multitude of fresh-water arms 

 and channels, uniting one with the other, and form- 

 ing a complete net- work of fresh-water canals of all 

 sizes and depths, from a mere muddy ditch to a 

 width of five miles, and a depth of twenty to 

 thirty feet. This coast was fronted by immense 

 mud-banks, stretching from ten to twenty miles 

 out to sea, having at low water a general depth of 

 about twelve feet, and a few deeper places, and some 

 sand-banks much shoaler or quite dry. These 

 mud flats gradually deepened towards their outer 

 edge to three and four fathoms, and then more 

 rapidly to six, ten, fifteen, and twenty fathoms. 



Now this is precisely the formation of the delta 

 of a great river, and the only difficulty in the present 

 case is the supposing a river large enough to produce 



vol. i. u 



