130 



EASTERN GEOGRAPHY'. 



fjJicries. Here li the port of Doling "tlm XMmi Novgorod of 

 Malaysia" (CdUlemarii), much frequented by tiughis and Chinese 

 dealers* The larg«' inland of Fr&lfrick Henry on the south coast almost 

 forms part of the mainland ; and Torres Strait, further east, is thickly 

 strewn with numerous islets, partly coralline, partly of old formation, 

 probably fragment! of the niioeene laud whieh at this point form* 

 erly connected New Guinea with Australia. Of these the largest 

 aro Thurntltiiu JlttuLt* TWiT;, Dtirntttf, and Murray, which are all 

 politically Attached to the government of Queensland. 



The coralline islets of Torres Strait lire often wrongly descritad m a 

 western continuation of the* Great Harrier Reef of East Australia. Iklwepn 

 thfsa ^rmiiifi tln?re Hows deep water mostly free of islands, while the 

 HUnken Harrier Kuef of suuth-east New Guinea, nl«ut 140 milts in length, 

 roaches UO further went than pna Possession near Hall Sound, 146* 20* 

 E. Here it is arrested hy the cantons fresh water streams, which discharge 

 iiitu P.ijma Gulf, iiil>3 .I. ^imv tlx- ivork mf the coral soophytcs* The north 

 coast of New Guinea east of Geelvink (lay in utmost destitute of reefs and 

 islands ; hut numerous grout* 1 *, f-ucli as the /)' EnijrcfuthaKX and Louisiana 

 Archipelagoes, nrn dust^n-d round thr huiii \\->- e-.l<-rri extremity *>[ tliu 

 mainland. 0(T the north-east coast are the lafge bdsnuls of KtUB Britain 

 and JfSm tref'i>fi linw f>,-,-ii].ir-.l |,y Ihv (mtulhis and f.y Hutu r---tk.iiin-i 

 the ** Bmnark dnMptbtgo*" Hut all these group* Indong rather to the 

 Pacific insular world* and are must commonly included in the tfctanfsian 

 Division of the South Sea Islands. 



Physical Features. Till recently New Guinea was a ierm 

 incognita in the strict sense of the term, ami even still hy far the 

 greater part of the interior remains to ho explored. Hence any 

 attempt at a detailed account of it* relief would be premature. It 

 in ksufWti, however, to Ik; essentially a highland, p.'krtly even an 

 Alpine region, developing plains., or low-lying tracts, chiefly uJotig 

 the lower courses of the rivers, and elsewhere traversed by lofty, and 

 in some places snowy t ranges running mostly north-west and south- 

 east in the line of the main insular axis. These ranges appear to 

 form more or less continuous single chains in the norUi-west and 

 K-juth-e;i*i, while in the central region they diverge into parallel 

 sy.-Lejiis, at some pointi approaching close to the seaboard and enclos- 

 ing extensive plateaux and even low-lying level tracts. The best 

 known sections are the Arfuk hills (9000 to 10,000 feet) back of 

 Geclvink Bay in the north-west, and in the south-east the Sir 

 Arthur tJordon, Albert, \'\tk\ and Owen Stanley ranges, the Jailer 

 culminating with the; double-crested Mount Owen Stanley (13,205 

 feet), approached, but not yet ascended, by Chalmers and Forbes, 

 In lie vast un visited central region other great ranges such as the 



