BEST ROUTE INTO THE INTERIOR. 291 



salt, and the rivers mostly trickling shallow streams, 



running over rocks or sands, the rivers of New 



Guinea are so full, and abounding with fresh water, 



as to influence the sea for miles outside their mouths, 



and expel the salt-water even from the flattest 



and most sluggish part of their course. Any craft, 



then, that can get across the mud-flats off their 



mouths, need never fear the being unable to find 



water enough for many miles above them. No 



doubt some channels will be much more shoal than 



others, but a small light steamer, drawing about six 



feet of water, might probably penetrate for a couple 



of hundred miles, or into the very heart of the 



country. We had no means of judging which would 



be the best channel to take, except that flie large 



southern arm (in lat. 8° 45'), which Captain Black- 



wood first visited, seemed both the largest, and to 



have the deepest water at its mouth. I know of no 



part of the world, the exploration of which is so 



flattering to the imagination, so likely to be fruitful 



in interesting results, whether to the naturalist, the 



ethnologist, or the geographer, and altogether so 



well calculated to gratify the enlightened curiosity 



of an adventurous explorer, as the interior of New 



Guinea. New Guinea ! the very mention of being 



taken into the interior of New Guinea sounds like 



being allowed to visit some of the enchanted regions 



of the " Arabian Nights," so dim an atmosphere of 



obscurity rests at present on the wonders it probably 



conceals. 



u 2 



