Dorey was not a good locality. It is quite probable, however, that at a station a
few miles in the interior, away from the recently elevated coralline rocks and the
influence of the sea air, a much more abundant harvest might be obtained.
One afternoon I went on board the steamer to return the captain's visit, and
was shown some very nice sketches (by one of the lieutenants), made on the
south coast, and also at the Arfak mountain, to which they had made an
excursion. From these and the captain's description, it appeared that the people
of Arfak were similar to those of Dorey, and I could hear nothing of the straight-
haired race which Lesson says inhabits the interior, but which no one has ever
seen, and the account of which I suspect has originated in some mistake. The
captain told me he had made a detailed survey of part of the south coast, and if
the coal arrived should go away at once to Humboldt Pay, in longitude 141° east,
which is the line up to which the Dutch claim New Guinea. On board the tender
I found a brother naturalist, a German named Rosenberg, who was draughtsman
to the surveying staff. He had brought two men with him to shoot and skin birds,
and had been able to purchase a few rare skins from the natives. Among these
was a pair of the superb Paradise Pie (Astrapia nigra) in tolerable preservation.
They were brought from the island of Jobie, which may be its native country, as
it certainly is of the rarer species of crown pigeon (Goura steursii), one of which
was brought alive and sold on board. Jobie, however, is a very dangerous place,
and sailors are often murdered there when on shore; sometimes the vessels
themselves being attacked. Wandammen, on the mainland opposite Jobie, inhere
there are said to be plenty of birds, is even worse, and at either of these places
my life would not have been worth a week's purchase had I ventured to live
alone and unprotected as at Dorey. On board the steamer they had a pair of tree
kangaroos alive. They differ chiefly from the ground-kangaroo in having a more
hairy tail, not thickened at the base, and not used as a prop; and by the powerful
claws on the fore-feet, by which they grasp the bark and branches, and seize the
leaves on which they feed. They move along by short jumps on their hind-feet,
which do not seem particularly well adapted for climbing trees. It has been
supposed that these tree-kangaroos are a special adaptation to the swampy, half-
drowned forests of, New Guinea, in place of the usual form of the group, which
is adapted only to dry ground. Mr. Windsor Earl makes much of this theory, but,
unfortunately for it, the tree-kangaroos are chiefly found in the northern
peninsula of New Guinea, which is entirely composed of hills and mountains
with very little flat land, while the kangaroo of the low flat Aru Islands
(Dorcopsis asiaticus) is a ground species. A more probable supposition seems to
lie, that the tree-kangaroo has been modified to enable it to feed on foliage in the