OljTANAtA MtEE. 
53 
be found. The boats of tbe Expedition seem to bave 
been too busily employed in wooding and watering to 
admit of an ^ploration of the river towards its sources. 
Had tbe case been otberwise, tbe speculations as to tlie 
interior of New Guinea being occupied by a different 
people from tbe coast tribes, w^bicb are supported to a 
certain extent by Dr. Miiller, would have been determined 
one way or tbe other, at least as far as regards the south- 
western part of tbe island. The information collected by 
the Dutch Expedition leaves it a matter of doubt whether 
the Ontanatas are an inlaad or a coast tribe, although the 
weight of the evidence is certainly in favour of the 
former position. In that case, the liotilla met with on 
tbe coast at a distance of more than thirty miles from tbe 
month of the rivetj may resemble in its character tbe 
" bala" of the inland inhabitants of Borneo, which oc- 
casionally descend tbe rivers of that island to sweep the 
adjacent coasts. This matter assumes an ethnographical 
importance when viewed in conjunction with tbe fact, that 
the habitations of the Papuans of Bori, on the north 
coast of New Guinea {vide post] ; those of tbe south coast 
seen by Captain Blackwood, R.N., of H.M.S. ' Fly f and 
also those of the inland parts of tbe south-west coast,* 
(according to the information of the natives) i consist of 
single large houses, erected on posts or piles, each being 
occupied by several families, indeed, sometimes by an 
entire tribe. 
Tbe flotillas which formerly issued from the rivers and 
inlets of the west coast of New Guinea, rcceii-^ng an 
* Dr. MiiBer, "Bijdragini tot de Kemiis viw Kkuw Cmnea" 
p. 31=, 
