tbia niEmner^ although they certainly did not display the 
monkey-like agility that Mr. Modera has so graphically 
described. 
Perhaps the pride of man may be wounded on finding 
how closely his species may approximate to that of the 
quadrumanea ; but a little consideration will induce him 
to regard with admiration the wonderful adaptation of 
God^s creatures to any circumstances under which they 
may be placed. It h a singular fact that, on the south- 
west coast of New Guinea^ the kangaroo, apparently the 
least suited of all animals for the process of climbing-, - 
has adapted himself to the half* drowned nature of the 
country by becoming an inhabitant of the trees.* 
The habitations of this strange people, wliich were 
probably situated on the firm land within the belt of 
mangroves that lined the shore, were not seen by their 
visitors; indeed, the only indication of fixed residences 
met with on the shores of the strait consisted in the ruins 
of two thatched sheds, which were found near the beach, 
about fifteen miles from the spot at which the interview took 
place, but which appeared to have been long abandoned. 
The remains of an old canoe, thirty feet long and two and 
a half feet wide, were discovered, half-buried in the mud, 
near the same spot, together with a quantity of oyster 
shells and cocoa-nut husks ; but whether this had been 
a summer residence of the natives, or the encampment of 
a stray party of pearl-fishers from the more westerly 
islands, could not be ascertained, 
• I shw a living^ specimen of this singular animal a few davs ago 
iu tlie gardens of the Royal Skwlogicd Society of Londoa. — 
G.W/E. 
