sea within it would form a wall of coral rock, and. an I
undulating coralline plain, exactly similar to those that I
still exist at various altitudes up to the summit of the I
island. We learn also that these changes have taken place I
at a comparatively recent epoch, for the surface of the I
coral has scarcely suffered from the action of the weather, I
and hundreds of sea-shells, exactly resembling those still I
found upon the beach, and many of them retaining their I
gloss and even their colour, are scattered over the surface I
of the island to near its summit.
Whether the Goram group formed originally part of I
New Guinea or of Ceram it is scarcely possible to determine,
and its productions will throw little light upon the
question, if, as I suppose, the islands have been entirely
submerged within the epoch of existing species of animals,
as in that case it must owe its present fauna and flora
to recent immigration from surrounding lands; and with
this view its poverty in species very well agrees. It
possesses much in common with East Ceram, but at the
same time has a good deal of resemblance to the Ké
Islands and Banda. The fine pigeon, Carpophaga concinna,
inhabits Ke, Banda, Matabello, and Goram, and is replaced
by a distinct species, C. neglecta, in Ceram. The insects of
these four islands have also a common facies—facts which
seem to indicate that some more extensive land has
recently disappeared from the area they now occupy,
lud has supplied them with a few of its peculiar pro-
■¡actions.
I The Goram people (among whom I stayed a month) are a
■ace of traders. Every year they visit the Tenimber, Ke,
Lid Aru Islands, the whole north-west coast of New
Luinea from Oetanata to Salwatty, and the island of
tVaigiou and Myspl. They also extend their voyages to
I'idore and Ternate, as well as to Banda and Amboyna.
th e ir praus are all made by that wonderful race of boat-
tuilders, the Ke islanders, who annually turn out some
■hundreds of boats, large and small, which can hardly be
■surpassed for beauty of form and goodness of workmanship,
th e y trade chiefly in tripang, the medicinal mussoi bark,
Lvild nutmegs, and tortoise-shell, which they sell to the
QBugis traders at Ceram-laut or Aru, few of them caring to
¡take their products to any other market. In other respects
|they are a lazy race, living very poorly, and much given to
[opium smoking. The only native manufactures are sail-
jmatting, coarse cotton cloth, and pandanus-leaf boxes,
[prettily stained and ornamented with shell-work.
In the island of Goram, only eight or ten miles long,
there are about a dozen Bajahs, scarcely better off
than the rest of the inhabitants, and exercising a mere
[nominal sway, except when any order is received from
[the Dutch Government, \vhen, being backed by a
[higher power, they show a little more strict authority