NARRATIVE OF THE CRUISE. 
681 
it seems to act as a sort of sieve or screen, and to concentrate amongst it the surface 
animals on which they feed. The drift wood and seeds were also abundant on the surface 
on the previous clay, and a boat which was lowered from the ship captured amongst it a 
Sea Snake (. Pelamys bicolor) over 3 feet in length. 
On the 23rd, shortly after noon, the Cyclops Mountains were seen ahead, and the 
vessel steamed towards Point Caillie, which was rounded at 7 r.M. , and shortly afterwards 
anchored in 19 fathoms, with that Point bearing N. 24° W., distant ]Jr miles. 
There was no difficulty in distinguishing the land. Mount Bougainville on the east side 
of the entrance is a high solitary peak, and the Cyclops Mountains stand well out. Point 
Caillie appears like an island. Bonpland Point is at the extremity of a ridge of hills 
westward of Mount Bougainville, and separated from it by a low neck of land, and at 
a distance looks like an island in Humboldt Bay, which then appears to extend from 
Mount Bougainville to Point Caillie. 
Rounding Point Caillie at a distance of from 1 to 1 1 miles, no soundings were obtained 
with 40 fathoms of line. The first sounding was 28 fathoms, and the ship was 
immediately stopped, and when her w T ay through the water was lost, the anchor was let 
go in 19 fathoms, it being quite dark at the time. 
Humboldt Bay, New Guinea. 
As the ship entered the bay (“ Talok Lintju ” of the inhabitants themselves), a 
light flashed from the Point Caillie shore, glimmered and flashed again, then another 
flashed, then another, and soon a dozen or more lights close together were flashing and 
moving to and fro. These signal fires were answered from the south side of the bay, and 
from another spot higher up on the same side, and the peculiar holloa of warning, “ hoa, 
hoa,” was heard coming over the water from many voices, and sounding exactly like the 
shouts with which the savages at Api in the New Hebrides greeted the ship. The masses 
of lights glimmered from the very water level, as could be seen from the mode of reflec- 
tion of the flashes in the water. The villages of pile-dwellings of Ungrau and Tobaddi 
were giving the alarm, and were being answered by the people of Wawah on the other 
side of the bay. The bright lights could be seen moving about, and waving to and fro 
as they were carried by the excited natives along the platforms of the pile-built villages ; 
glimpses of the shadows of the natives’ bodies could be caught as they passed between 
the ship and the light. 
Just as the anchor was let go a light appeared on the water close to the ship, and a 
canoe was evidently reconnoitring it, but the natives were shy and wary, and the light 
disappeared again for some time. Then it was again seen close at hand, being waved up 
and down ; and a native standing up delivered a volley of his language. 
Lights were placed at the gangways and were waved as a token of friendship, and all 
