n,
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
"canna 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
tang," or "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 lame
trees, loaded with Orchideae, 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 New Guinea; one of them (Monarcha chrysomela), of