Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 14.djvu/764

 fact that for a length of nearly 700 miles the south coast of New Guinea is low and swampy, with no high land anywhere visible, we are led to conclude that there is probably a continuous range of lofty mountains toward the north, while the south consists of wide alluvial tracts and of slightly elevated inland plains. This part of the island would thus somewhat resemble Sumatra turned round, but with higher mountains, which are probably not volcanic, and with a considerably greater width of land.

Although the Fly River penetrates so far into the interior, its size and depth in its upper portion are by no means what we should expect in a stream fed by a lofty mountain range close to the equator. It is therefore almost certain that larger rivers exist farther west; while another large river certainly flows northward, having its mouth in a delta at the eastern extremity of Geelvink Bay. Until these rivers are explored, and at least the lower slopes of the hills ascended, we can not be said to have much real knowledge of the interior of New Guinea.

Situated close to the equator, and extending only eleven degrees south of it, the climate of New Guinea is hot and uniform, and the rains abundant; leading here, as elsewhere in similar situations, to the growth of a luxuriant forest vegetation, which clothes hill and valley with an ever-verdant mantle. Only on the coasts nearest to Australia, and probably influenced by the dry winds from that continent, are there any open or thinly wooded spaces, and here alone do we find some approach to the Australian type of vegetation in the occurrence of numerous eucalypti and acacias. Everywhere else, however, even in the extreme southeast peninsula and adjacent islands, the vegetation is essentially Malayan; but Dr. Beccari, who collected plants extensively in the northwestern peninsula and its islands, was disappointed, both as regards its variety and novelty. On the Arfak Mountains, however, he found a very interesting subalpine or temperate flora, consisting of araucarias, rhododendrons, vacciniums, umbelliferæ, and the antarctic genus Drimys. The forests of New Guinea are everywhere grand and luxuriant, rivaling those of Borneo and Brazil in the beauty of their forms of vegetable life; and we can not consider the collections yet made as affording more than very imperfect samples of the treasures they contain.

The animal life of this great island is better known, and is perhaps more interesting. Its terrestrial mammalia are, however, singularly few, and, with the exception of a peculiar kind of wild pig, all belong to the marsupial tribe or the still lower monotremes of Australia. The tigers, apes, and buffaloes, described in the fictitious travels of Captain Lawson, are here as much out of their real place as they would be in the Highlands of Scotland; while the tracks of large animals, supposed to be rhinoceros or wild cattle, actually discovered by recent travelers, are now ascertained to be those of the cassowary, which, so far as we yet know, is the largest land-animal of New Guinea. Large birds