ecured to each other with strips of rattan at each
end, and in two or three other places. The upper surface is smoothed down
flat, and the central piece projects a little way at each end which
usually shows some rude carving touched up with red and white paint. As
the sea washes over a catamaran during rough weather, on such an occasion
a small temporary stage is sometimes erected in the centre, and on this
the cargo is secured with strips of cane.

The canoe of this part of New Guinea is usually about twenty-five feet in
length, and carries seven or eight people. It is made of the trunk of a
tree, hollowed out like a long trough, roundly pointed at each end, a
foot and a half in extreme width, with the sides bulging out below and
falling in at top, leaving only eight inches between the gunwales which
are strengthened by a pole running along from end to end. The ends--which
are alike--are carved like those of the catamaran in imitation of the
head of a turtle or snake, but more elaborately. The outrigger consists
of a float as long as the canoe, attached by small sticks or pegs let
into the wood to eight or nine notches in both gunwales, and are secured
there. A portion, or the whole of this framework, is carefully covered
over with planks or long sticks, and occasionally a small stage is formed
on the opposite side, over the centre of the canoe, projecting a little
outwardly, with room upon it for two people to sit and paddle. The canoes
of this description which we saw were not provided with any other sail
than a small temporary one, made by interlacing the leaflets of the
cocoa-palm, and stuck up on poles when going with the wind free. The
paddles used here are similar in shape to those seen in the Louisiade
Archipelago, with spear-shaped blades and slender handles, but are
larger--measuring six feet in length--and of neater construction, the end
of the handle being carved into some fanciful device.

BRUMER ISLANDERS.

About sunset, and when about to leave us, one of the Brumer Islanders,
standing on a large catamaran alongside, put himself into a grotesque
attitude, and commenced beating with his hand upon a large tin can which
someone had given him, at the same time going through some of the motions
of a dance. He seemed to be a most amusing vagabond, for, upon our
drummer being set to work in the chains, after joining with the other
natives in the first exclamations of surprise, he listened attentively
for a lit