d made the acquaintance of a strange and little-known race
of men; I had become familiar with the traders of the far East; I had
revelled in the delights of exploring a new fauna and flora, one of the
most remarkable and most beautiful and least-known in the world; and
I had succeeded in the main object for which I had undertaken the
journey-namely, to obtain fine specimens of the magnificent Birds of
Paradise, and to be enabled to observe them in their native forests. By
this success I was stimulated to continue my researches in the Moluccas
and New Guinea for nearly five years longer, and it is still the portion
of my travels to which I look back with the most complete satisfaction.

CHAPTER XXXIII. THE ARU ISLANDS--PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY AND ASPECTS OF
NATURE.

IN this chapter I propose to give a general sketch of the physical
geography of the Aru Islands, and of their relation to the surrounding
countries; and shall thus be able to incorporate the information
obtained from traders, and from the works of other naturalists with
my own observations in these exceedingly interesting and little-known
regions.

The Aru group may be said to consist of one very large central island
with a number of small ones scattered round it. The great island is
called by the natives and traders "Tang-busar" (great or mainland), to
distinguish it as a whole from Dobbo, or any of the detached islands. It
is of an irregular oblong form, about eighty miles from north to south,
and forty or fifty from east to west, in which direction it is traversed
by three narrow channels, dividing it into four portions. These channels
are always called rivers by the traders, which puzzled me much till I
passed through one of them, and saw how exceedingly applicable the
name was. The northern channel, called the river of Watelai, is about
a quarter of a mile wide at its entrance, but soon narrows to abort the
eighth of a mile, which width it retains, with little variation, during
its whole, length of nearly fifty miles, till it again widens at its
eastern mouth. Its course is moderately winding, and the hanks are
generally dry and somewhat elevated. In many places there are low cliffs
of hard coralline limestone, more or less worn by the action of water;
while sometimes level spaces extend from the banks to low ranges of
hills a little inland. A few small streams enter it from right and left,
at the mouths of which are some little rocky islands. The depth