342 
COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL 
are massed together to form a labyrinthine archipelago 
of over thirty islands, beset with reefs and shoals. 
These are evidently of much more recent origin, the 
highest point of Nuhu Eoa attaining an altitude of 200 
feet only, and being formed of coralline limestone and 
shells. Ke Dulan is celebrated for its harbour, which 
was visited by the Challenger in 1874. Here, at Tual, 
resides the Controleur and a small colony of Germans 
who are engaged in the timber trade. The islands have 
no season of drought such as is experienced by those 
farther to the west, the ultimate links in the great 
Sunda chain. The west monsoon brings a considerable 
amount of rain, with stormy and unsettled weather, but 
from April to October, when the easterly monsoon pre¬ 
vails, the weather is settled and fine. The average rain¬ 
fall is 102 inches. 
Captain Langen, who has resided for a considerable 
time on the group, divides the natives into three classes 
—the aborigines, the Papuans, and the immigrant Malay 
people, who are of varied nationality. He describes the 
true Ke natives as tall and strongly built, with well¬ 
shaped but large noses and high cheek-bones, with black 
and brown coloured beard, and long, wavy, but finely 
curled black hair, mixed with several lighter or darker 
shades of browm, reaching to the shoulder and projecting 
all round the head. The skin is in colour midway 
between the Papuan and Malay. True Papuans were at 
one time established in several places, but especially on 
a small island which still bears the name of Pulo Papua ; 
but constant warfare existed between the two races, and 
the Ke people eventually succeeded in driving them out. 
They had nevertheless intermarried for many generations, 
and as a consequence a mixed semi-Papuan race is found 
in all parts. 
