subject should have been in the habit of classing these
races as mere varieties of one stock, as closely related in
physical conformation as from their geographical proximity
one might suppose they ought to be. So far as I have yet
seen, the Malay and Papuan appear to be as widely separated
as any two human races that exist, being distinguished
by physical, mental, and moral characteristics, all
of the most marked and striking kind.
Feb. 5th.—I took advantage of a very fine calm day to
pay a visit to the island of Wokan, which is about a mile
from us, and forms part of the “ tanna busar,” or mainland
of Aru. This is a large island, extending from
north to south about a hundred miles, but so low in many
parts as to be intersected by several creeks, which run
completely through it, offering a passage for good-sized
vessels. On the west side, where we are, there are only a
few outlying islands, of which ours (Wamma) is the
principal; but on the east coast are a great number of
islands, extending some miles beyond the mainland, and
forming the “ blakang tana, or u back country, of the
traders, being the principal seat of the pearl, tripang, and
tortoiseshell fisheries. To the mainland many of the
birds and animals of the country are altogether confined;
the Birds of Paradise, the black cockatoo, the great brush-
turkey, and the cassowary, are none of them found on
Wamma or any of the detached islands. I did not,
however, expect in this excursion to see any decided difference
in the forest or its productions, and was therefore
agreeably surprised. The beach was overhung with the
drooping branches of large trees, loaded with Orchidese,
ferns, and other epiphytal plants. In the forest there was
more variety, some parts being dry, and with trees of a
lower growth, while in others there were some of the most
beautiful palms I have ever seen, with a perfectly straight,
smooth, slender stem, a hundred feet high, and a crown of
handsome drooping leaves. But the greatest novelty and
most striking feature to my eyes were the tree-ferns, which,
after seven years spent in the tropics, I now saw in perfection
for the first time. All I had hitherto met with
were slender species, not more than twelve feet high, and
they gave not the least idea of the supreme beauty of trees
bearing their elegant heads of fronds more than thirty feet
in the air, like those which were plentifully scattered about
this forest. There is nothing in tropical vegetation so
perfectly beautiful.
My boys shot five sorts of birds, none of which we had
obtained during a month’s shooting in Wamma. Two
were very pretty flycatchers, already known from Hew
Guinea ; one of them (Monarcha chrysomela), of brilliant
black and bright orange colours, is by some authors considered
to be the most beautiful of all flycatchers; the
other is pure white and velvety black, with a broad fleshy
VOL. II. p