NEW GUINEA AND THE PAPUANS 
387 
“ Port Moresby Beds/’ which consist of sandy limestones 
and fine-grained calcareous shales, seem to be the most 
widely evident rocks of the Tertiary period on the 
southern coast of British New Guinea. The mountainous 
regions in the interior of this territory appear, with the 
exception of the district around Mount Yule, to be com¬ 
posed of metamorphic rocks, principally of schists, be¬ 
coming more highly metamorphosed as the higher altitudes 
are reached. These slates and schists of undetermined 
age are very conspicuous in the D’Entrecasteaux and 
Louisiade groups, in which islands the only “ payable ” 
gold yet found in New Guinea was discovered in 1888. 
The igneous rocks, as already mentioned, occupy a con¬ 
siderable area, but that they are not necessarily of any 
very great age is shown by the fact that they rest in 
many instances on the most recent strata. The forma¬ 
tions in the interior from Cape Burn (long. 135° E.) are 
believed to be jurassic limestones and dolomites. 
Of the useful minerals in New Guinea not much is as 
yet known. Various causes have rendered exploration 
and prospecting a matter of great difficulty. The 
Germans appear, like the Dutch, to have paid little 
attention to the resources of their great possessions in 
this respect, and our knowledge is chiefly confined to the 
work of a few geologists and prospectors in British terri¬ 
tory. Although traces of gold are obtainable in most of 
the rivers of the south coast, no reefs have been dis¬ 
covered. In 1888 the gold-fields of Sudest Island were 
opened, and in a few months about 800 Australian 
diggers were engaged. The diggings were all alluvial, 
and although some thousands of ounces of gold were won, 
the field was worked out in a few months. A little 
later St. Aignan was found to yield paying gold, but the 
same result occurred. It is very probable that further 
