434 



THE ARU ISLANDS. [ohap. xxxin. 



CHAPTER XXXIIL 



TBE ABU ISLAKD3. — PHYSICAL GEOGBAPHy AlTD ASPECTS 

 OF NATtJRE. 



TN this chapter I propose to gi^re a general sketch of the 

 J- physical geography of the Am Islands, and of their 

 relation to the smTouddiug countries; and shall thus be 

 able to incoi'porate the information obtained from traders, 

 and from the works of other natural ist^s, witli my own 

 observations in these exceedingly interesting and little- 

 known regions. 



The ^Vru group may be said to consist of one very large 

 central island with a number of small ones scattered round 

 it. The great island is called by the natives and traders 



Tana-bflsar " (great or mainland), to distinguish it as a 

 whole from Dobbo, or any of the detached islands. It is 

 of an irregular oblong form, about eighty miles from north 

 to souths and forty or fifty from east to west, in which 

 direction it is traversed by three narraw channels, dividing 

 it into four portions. These channels are always called 

 rivers by the traders, which puzzled me much til! I passed 

 through one of them, and saw how exceedingly applicable 

 the name was. The northern channel, calletl the river of 

 Watelai, is about a quarter of a mile wide at its entrance, 

 but soon narrows to about the eighth of a mile, which 

 width it retains, with little variation, during its whole 

 length of nearly fifty miles, till it again widens at its 

 eastern mouth. Its course is moderately winding, and the 

 banks are generally dry and somewhat elevated. In many 

 places there are low cliffs of hard coralhne limestone, more 

 or leas worn by the action of water ; while sometimes level 

 spaces extend from the banks to low ranges of hills a little 

 inland, A few small streams enter it from right and left, 

 at the mouths of which are some little rocky islands. The 

 depth is very regular, being from ten to tifteen fathoms, 

 and it has thus every feature of a true river, but for the salt 

 water and the absence of a cuiTent. The other two rivers, 



