March 22, 1858.] KNOWLEDGE OF NEW GUINEA. 
183 
of quartz and limestone. From 135° 30' to 138° 30' are slips of 
white sand mixed with much quartz. According to Professor von 
Leonhard of Heidelberg, the mountains consist of a Jurassic lime- 
stone formation (oolitic series of English geologists), and their 
higher parts of a very characteristic dolomite of the same age. In 
the subjacent brownish grey dull-looking limestone fossil shells and 
vertebrae are found. The bed of the river Timbona yields a deposit 
not unlike certain strata of the tertiary formation called Tegel, 
which occurs at Vienna. 
In the Princess Marianne Strait, where the banks are elevated 
beyond the ordinary level of the tide, pisolitic iron occurs (the 
German Bohnerz, together with Sumpferz or Easen Eisenstein). 
The west coast of New Guinea seems to be everywhere a wilder- 
ness, overrun with wood. Eeports, botanical, zoological, and orni- 
thological, of the whole district, accompanied, but were curtailed, 
that time might be devoted to consideration of the climate, the 
seasons, the tides, and currents, which were more minutely de- 
scribed. Mr. Yeats concluded with a few oral remarks on the 
inhabitants of New Guinea, their social condition, their usages, and 
the traffic they maintain with neighbouring people. The island 
was discovered, he observed, in 1526, but although so near to the 
Moluccas and to Northern Australia, still remained a comparative 
blank upon our maps. The Admiralty chart behind him had not 
the Marianne Strait marked upon it. He submitted that the shores 
of New Guinea were now known to be accessible, and the popula- 
tion by no means formidable. The Dutch derived from the country, 
through the Ceramese and others, pearls, gold, spices, medicinal 
barks, resins, and rare plumage ; if our mercantile men were un- 
mindful of these treasures, geographers, he believed, would not be 
indifferent to the glory of opening up to the whole world one of its 
largest islands, and to the poor fever-stricken residents of the Papuan 
coast a health-giving atmosphere among the mountains of the in- 
terior. There were fresh laurels for the first pioneers to this 
elevated region, alluded to by several scientific men, but explored 
as yet by none. — J. Y. 
The President. — We beg to return thanks to Mr. Yeats for having been 
so kind as to bring before the public this translation of the memoir of 
Dr. Frederick Muller. It is quite clear that no geographer present can be 
acquainted with the vast variety of facts which have been brought before us 
in all branches of natural history, and I am not overstating the merit of the 
paper in saying that it is one of the most perfect geographical papers that 
I have ever heard. Whenever we get near the Indian Archipelago, we are apt 
to look to Mr. Crawfurd, because he has studied, not only the natural features 
of the adjoining regions, but also the character and language of the people. 
With regard to the geology spoken of, I beg to correct the translator in one or 
