132 
FROM HONG-KONG TO YOKOHAMA. 
former densely wooded and disclosing - a magnificent panorama of mountains. Certain islands 
said to lie to the eastward of the strait were looked for in vain, and we proceeded towards the 
Meangis or Menangis Islands. While dredging on the ioth in sight of this low-lying group 
and of the mountainous Karekelang, the largest of the Tulur Islands to the southward, a boat 
came alongside, manned by brown-skinned men, their hair pulled back and tied in a top-knot. 
On the 16th we sounded in 1650 and in 2000 fathoms, near the spot where Carteret Reef is 
marked in the ordinary charts. The latter also show a line of reefs pointing to a submarine 
elevation extending from Papua towards the Pelew Islands; but possibly further research may 
prove this to be also fictitious. Our attention on the 20th was called to a quantity of driftwood 
strewn about our track, including large trees, which lifted their blackened branches in the most 
grotesque manner above the sea-surface, and seemed to have been in the water for a long 
time. We were now nea^Jy due north of the delta of the large river Ambernoh or Ambermo, 
which drains the northern slopes of the lofty central range of Papua, and empties itself into 
the ocean near Point d’Urville. Probably the trees just mentioned had been carried down 
to the sea by this great river, of which as yet very little is known, but which may at some 
future time, perhaps not far distant, be one of the great commercial highways into the interior 
of Papua. On the following day H.M.S. “Challenger” crossed the Equator for the third time, 
since her departure from England. Numerous pieces of driftwood, with birds perched on 
some of them, denoted the vicinity of the great unexplored continent whose shores we were 
approaching. 
HUMBOLDT BAY. 
A wet cloudy morning prevented our obtaining an earlier view of the coast of 
Papua, but shortly after noon on the 23rd the weather cleared up, and the two steep 
promontories—Point Bonpland on the left, and Point Caille on the right—which define the 
entrance to Humboldt Bay lay before us. Still further to the left Mount Bougainville lifted 
its head above the clouds, confronted on the far right by the serrated ridge of Mount Cyclops. 
We found ourselves, as it were, at one of the great gateways of the unknown land. When 
the “ Challenger ” anchored just inside the heads, darkness had already come on. Nothing 
was to be seen in the direction of the land except a number of lights or fires, having ’in the 
distance very much the effect of the gas-lamps of a seaport town. Later in the evening, as 
we strained our eyes and ears to catch some sign of life, the gradually approaching sound 
of paddles was heard. As soon as the native canoe—for such it was—came alongside, every 
effort was made to induce our visitors to step on board; but, as they persisted in their 
refusal, we burnt a couple of blue lights, whereupon an extraordinary sight was visible. 
The canoe contained two dark, brown-skinned, woolly-haired savages, dressed in little 
else but a few ornaments. The head of one was encircled with a crown of bright scarlet 
flowers, while the hair of the other was stuck all over with large white feathers. As they 
kept repeating a word which sounded very much like “Segah, segah!” some bundles of 
cigars were fixed to the end of their long fish-spears, and they proved their acquaintance 
