NARRATIVE OF THE CRUISE. 
545 
the cruise in the Antarctic Ocean. As the Arrou Islands were approached Oscillatorise 
( Trichodesmium ) were very numerous, colouring the sea in some places dull red or yellow- 
ish brown. The bundles of Trichodesmium were usually massed in great patches or long- 
lines. These algae appeared to be confined to the immediate surface layers, as tow-nets 
dragged several fathoms beneath the surface captured very few. Between Cape York and 
the Arrou Islands not a single specimen of pelagic Foraminifera was taken in the nets, and 
none were noticed in the deposits. The water was greenish in colour, but as the ship 
neared the Arrou Islands it became blue, and a few of the truly pelagic and open ocean 
organisms were again noticed- in the tow-nets. As the water of the Arafura' Sea has a 
low specific gravity, it is most probable that one or more large rivers enter it from New 
Guinea ; the surface fauna and that of the bottom and the deposits are also more like 
that of a large bay than of the ocean. A few Frigate Birds, Boatswain Birds; and Terns 
were noticed during the trip, and Dolphins were very numerous. 
Arrou (Aru) Islands. 
Dobho . — Immediately on anchoring, the head traders of Dobbo and the Dutch 
missionaries came off to visit the ship, all of them Malays from Macassar, their boats 
flying the Dutch flag. The traders came off in a Malay boat, with a double row of 
paddlers, dressed in gold embroidered coats, and full white trousers, supported by an orna- 
mental belt. The missionaries who came from the village on the west side of Wamma 
Island were . dressed in black tailed coats, trousers, and tall hats ; each of them bore 
a silver-topped stick, with the Dutch royal arms on it, as their badge of office. They 
all appeared very hot and uncomfortable in their ceremonial dress, and brought off in 
their boats boxes containing their ordinary costume, into which they got as soon as 
their visit was paid, and they certainly looked much better in their picturesque dress 
of “sarong and baju” than they did in the by no means handsome black coat and hat 
of Europeans. 
The time of the visit to Dobbo, the capital of the Arrou Islands, was at the end of the 
southeast monsoon, so that nearly all the trading vessels had taken their departure for 
Singapore, and the population of the village was reduced to about three hundred, of 
whom twenty were Chinese, ten Arrou Islanders (see PI. XXV.), and the rest Malays ; and 
a short time later the village would have been found nearly deserted, as the men left 
behind would have resumed their fishing, on the east coast of the group, for trepang, 
pearl-shells,' and tortoiseshell. The price of the tortoiseshell at Dobbo was 15s. per pound, 
pearl-shells 2s. per pound, and Great Birds of Paradise 10s. each. The headquarters of 
the fishery on the east coast is at a place called Gomo Gomo, a small detached island, on 
which there are goats and plenty of poultry. 
On Pulo Ougia and Pulo Wassia are some deer, which were no doubt originally landed 
