30 SISSANO. 
Hawaii, southward to New Zealand, we meet with a common family 
of languages denominated the Polynesian. 
As to the Polynesian we need have no hesitation. We have abun- 
dant material from more than a dozen widely separated regions of the 
existence of a language of a common parentage. Doubt may exist 
as to the source of the Polynesian; there can be no doubt in the wealth 
of material as to its position as a speech family. 
In Melanesia we lack the richness of Polynesian material. At best 
we have but a few vocabularies which may be at all characterized as 
dictionaries; of nearly 200 languages we have no more than brief and 
as yet quite unstandardized word-lists. For convenience of assign- 
ment of the affiliations with which we deal in this examination, I shall 
continue the employment of the familiar term, but solely as a geo- 
graphical designation and without prejudice as to the philological 
principles involved. As a geographical convenience I subdivide this 
area into three divisions. ‘The southern extends from the Isle of Pines 
through New Caledonia and the Loyalties, to include Aneityum, 
Tanna, and Eromanga; from this southern division of Melanesia I 
omit the Fijian, for I prefer to consider that in connection with the 
Polynesian, with which it is at least equally allied. Central Melanesia 
in this division embraces the New Hebrides, the Banks and Santa 
Cruz groups, from Efaté north to 10° south latitude. Northern 
Melanesia comprises the Solomon Islands. from San Cristoval to 
Buka. 
Northwestward of the Solomon Islands lies the Bismarck Archi- 
pelago of two principal islands, New Pomerania and New Mecklen- 
burg, from the latter of which New Hanover is separated by no more 
than a narrow channel. Included geographically in the group lie the 
Admiralty and several other small islands. Because we know as 
yet so little of the races which are inhabitants of these islands, I repeat 
the geographical subdivision here and temporarily sunder them from 
the association which they may be found to possess with the Solomon 
Islands in one direction and with New Guinea in the other. To the 
Bismarck Archipelago East I assign so much of New Pomerania as 
lies upon St. George’s Channel, the Duke of York or New Lauenburg 
group which lies within the channel at its narrowest point, New Ire- 
land, with New Hanover and several islands lying eastward. The 
Bismarck Archipelago North comprises the Admiralty group, the 
Hermit group, and associated islets. The Bismarck Archipelago West 
comprises those languages in the neighborhood of the Vitiaz- Dampier 
Straits which we owe almost wholly to Friederici’s zeal of collection. 
For the present I deem it best to refrain from the New Guinea 
division into Papuan and Melanesian, which my predecessors have 
employed. In these notes I follow a geographical division. New 
Guinea North extends as far eastward as the tip of the promontory 
