running East-North-East and
West-South-West, two miles and two-thirds in greatest width; it is
situated in latitude 10 degrees 45 minutes 30 seconds South and longitude
150 degrees 23 minutes East. The whole island presents a luxuriant
appearance, being covered with cocoa-palms and other trees, and on the
high ground several large fenced enclosures of cultivated ground--where
among other plants we could distinguish the banana and
sugar-cane--attested the fertility of the soil. The western, and at
present the leeward side of the island, as viewed from our anchorage
exhibits the appearance of a broken ridge on its southern half with
several eminences topped by immense detached blocks of rock, partially
concealed by the trees--to this, in the centre, succeeds a break occupied
by a very low irregular cliff behind a bay with a sandy beach--afterwards
the land rises suddenly to form a hill, 665 feet in height, with a steep
face to the north-west, and a gradual slope backwards--and beyond this
another hill, not so high (386 feet) but somewhat similar in form, shut
out our further view in that direction. The mainland of New Guinea filled
the background with a broken outline of ridges of wooded hills along the
coast in front of a more distant and nearly continuous range of high
mountains covered with trees up to their very summits.

NATIVES AND CATAMARANS.

Next morning we were visited by a party of natives from the neighbouring
island, consisting of six men in a canoe, and one on a catamaran or raft.
They were perfectly unarmed and came boldly alongside with a quantity of
yams and coconuts for barter; when their stock was exhausted, they
returned for more, and, accompanied by others, repeated the visit several
times during the day. Although there was no obvious difference between
these natives and those of the southern portion of the Louisiade, yet the
catamaran was quite new to us, and the canoe differed considerably from
any which we had seen before.

CATAMARANS AND CANOES.

The first catamaran was only nine feet long--it consisted of three thick
planks lashed together, forming a sort of raft, which one man sitting a
little behind the middle, with his legs doubled under him, managed very
dexterously with his paddle. We afterwards saw others of a larger size,
some of them capable of carrying a dozen people with their effects. One
of this description is made of three logs--rarely two or four--laid side
by side, and firmly s