888 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL 
exploration will reveal rich fields on the mainland. The 
only other minerals known are sulphur, iron, plumbago, 
and mercury, of which the first-named is alone to be 
remuneratively worked. The mercury occurs as cinnabar 
on Normanby Island. 
5. Climate. 
The size and position of New Guinea are such as to 
interfere considerably with uniformity of climate. Thus 
in the neighbourhood of the Arfak Mountains, which lie 
almost under the equator, the rainfall is very heavy, and 
few days in the year are absolutely dry, while in parts of 
the British territory at the other extremity of the island 
the influence of the proximity of Australia and other 
causes are sufficient to bring about periods of drought, 
though these are never of the severity and regularity of 
the dry seasons of the Lesser Sunda Islands. Roughly 
speaking, it may be said that the easterly monsoon brings 
rain not only in the Moluccas but in New Guinea, except 
in most parts of its south and west coasts, and the high 
ranges of the latter country, condensing the rain-clouds 
of the Pacific breezes, act as a sort of umbrella to the 
north coast of Australia and Timor at this season. Thus 
Finschhafen, near the Huon Gulf in German New Guinea, 
receives its greatest rainfall with the south-east trades 
from June till October, while at Port Moresby, on the 
opposite side of the peninsula, the weather is very dry at 
this period, and the heavy rains fall with the westerly 
monsoon from January to April. Local peculiarities, 
however, cause certain exceptions to this rule. Thus 
Konstantinhafen, though distant only about 150 miles 
westward of Finschhafen, has its rains at precisely the 
opposite season—a result brought about by the great 
