NEW GUINEA AND THE PAPUANS 
417 
with the vast flats of the Fly Eiver basin; but near the 
source of the latter, and not far from the junction of the 
boundaries of the three territories, rises the very rugged 
and precipitous Victor Emmanuel range. It has not yet 
been visited, but when sighted from the south by Sir 
William Macgregor, appeared to consist of two distinct 
chains, of which the northern is the higher, probably 
attaining an elevation of from 10,000 to 12,000 feet. 
No settlements have been made by the Germans between 
the Kaiserin Augusta and their boundary at Humboldt 
Bay. 
The so-called Bismarck Archipelago has been known 
longer than the coast of the neighbouring mainland, and 
German traders have had posts on the Duke of York group, 
which lies between New Britain and New Ireland, since 
1878. The two last named islands are the most im¬ 
portant in the archipelago, but are still very little known, 
and the focus of German influence and exploration is 
chiefly centred in the coasts and islands of the narrow 
St. George’s Channel which separates them. The head¬ 
quarters of the New Guinea Company were until recently 
at Mioko, on one of the small islands of the Duke of 
York group, but owing to the unhealthiness of the site, and 
for other reasons, it has been removed to Blanche Bay 
in the north of New Britain. Although a more or less 
deep sea separates the Bismarck Archipelago from New 
Guinea, and they are thus, strictly speaking, not Papuan 
islands, except from an ethnological point of view, they 
will, for the sake of convenience, be presently described 
under this heading. 
The aims of the New Guinea Company have been 
chiefly agricultural. Tobacco, cotton, coffee, and cacao 
have all been grown with tolerable success, especially the 
two first named. In Konst an tinhafen 13,224 lbs. of 
