NARRATIVE OF THE CRUISE. 
547 
soft and succulent, and hence with a small axe one can enjoy all the pleasure of felling a 
large tree without any fatigue. 
On the Island of Wokan, not far from the anchorage, sago palms abound in the 
swamps. Several parties of natives from the back country were living near the shore, 
having come from a distance in their boats, to prepare a, store of sago to take home with 
them. They lived in small low-roofecl houses made of poles and reeds, and raised on 
posts about two feet above the swampy ground. These temporary houses were so low 
that the natives could only squat or lie in them ; two of them are shown on PI. XXIV., 
the one in the background being merely a frame-work unfinished. The men were darker 
than the inhabitants of Wokan in the neighbourhood, and looked more Papuan in 
appearance. They were armed with finely-made spears with iron blade-like points, 6 or 
8 inches long, and ornamented handles of carefully shaped wood. They would not part 
with these at any price. 
They resented an attempt to look into their house, no doubt because of the presence 
of the women, who seemed extremely shy, and huddled together out of the way, as was 
also the case at Wanumbai. The men had wrist ornaments, which were closely similar 
in make to those common at Humboldt Bay, New Guinea, and at the Admiralty Islands, 
and consisted of broad band-shaped wristlets made of plaited fibres (of Pandanus ?), 
yellow and black worked into a pattern. The belts of the Admiralty Islanders are 
figured on PI. Id. figs. 2 and 3. 
The bracelets of the Arrou Islanders were ornamented with European shirt buttons in 
lieu of the small ground-down shells ( Neritina ) used at New Guinea and the Admiralty 
Islands for the same purpose. The buttons came, no doubt, from the Chinese traders, 
and probably the natives thought they were intended for this purpose, as they do not 
look so very unlike the shells. The men had a number of buckets made of leaves full of 
sago, ready prepared, and their rude kneading-trough and strainers of palm fibre were 
seen in a swamp close by. 
The trees are excessively high and large in the Arrou forests. To a botanical collector, 
with no time to spare, such a forest is a hopeless problem. Only the few low-growing 
plants can be gathered, and the orchids and ferns that hang on the stems low down, 
especially along the coast. A few small palms can be cut down, but not the forest trees, 
the flowers and fruits of which, the main features of the plant, and those most likely to 
prove of especial interest, are far out of reach. It would take a day at least to fell one 
of the trees. The only hope is for the botanist to lie on his back and look for blossoms 
or fruit with a binocular glass, and then try and shoot a branch down with shot. Very 
often, however, the trees are far too high for that, and then the matter must be given 
up altogether. 
Some most enormous Stag’s-horn Ferns (Plctty cerium), which appeared to be at least 
8 feet in the height of the fronds, were seen growing on the high trees in Wokan Island 
