The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1877-08-08
WEDNESDAY. AUGUST s. 1871.
I.awson's New siuInea."
WAxDExISGs IN rHE ISrERIoK or New GUINEA,
By Cart. J. A. LAWSON.

u IL not often that Work OF Notion calls IOI
notice in the pages Of Nature; but We have here
Al exceptional case. This book has been iaVor-
ably noticed in some OF the daily and weekly
papers Us genuine narrative OF travel and an
addition TO our Knowledge Of an almost unknown
region. and il therefore becomes duty TO III
form our readers that it is wholly fictitious. IL
is not even clever fiction; Tor although the
author has some literary skill AMI some notion OF
the character Of sayages, he Is 50 totally gno-
rant Of the geography and the natural history OF
the country be pretends to have explored, and
50 completely unacqQainted with the exlgencies
Of travel and exploration IN trackless equatorial
forests, as 70 crowd his psges with incidents
totally unlike cay thst occur 10 the actual e1-
pl0rer. aud with facts altogether opposed 10
some Of the best established conclusions OF ply
steal geography. We proceed 10 give proofs oi
these statements. First, as 10 his geography.
he starts from point little to the east Of
Torres Straits, Of which he Is 50 injudIcious a.
to give the latitude and longitude Tooth to sec
ond>) from his own observations He also gives
$ map OF his route but without scale or meridian
line He describes himself however, as travel
ling generally northWards with only such d.
yergeDees as the country necessitaIed, and we
may therefore take 1t that his route Was nesrly
north. AS il should have been To cross the island.
(agaiu injudicioasly) gives the dimensions Of u
large lake, along one side OF which be travelled.
rs between 90 and 20 miles long. Is to 80
broad" which being laid down on his map fur
nishes an excellent scale. aud slows that the to-
tai distance from his starting point in straight
hne TO the place be Processes 10 have reached
must have been somew here between 800 and go
miles. Now. the total wIdth'of New Guinea is
here $50 miles only. aud the longest distance
possible 10 20 without reaching the sea i Just;
about go miles, which takes you to the shores
Of Geelviack Bay.
The centre Of New Guinea is about - s. Of
the equator. aud is almost certainly forest re-
gl0n throughout and sbundanty walered. Ia
this equatorial belt all round the globe the ten
perature is not excessive. SO or 9So being
the extreme daily limit while the nights are al
most invariably cool (I09 to 70 : J. The great
er part Of The country here described is, however
said TO be open plains with only occasional for
est tracts; water was not found for whole
days Journey. even at the foot of mountain
range 10000 feet high. and the ordinary daily
temperature Is said TO have reached loo to
log aud ll5e IN the shade. He describes s
terrific storm Of haistoues as large as hens eggs,
not 90 the mountains, but in the low country
about : : s. latitude.
His mode of travelling Is as extraordinary as
his geography. Alter the statement that in the
tropics early morning and evening are the only
times when 1t Is possible TO travel" be assures
Us that he started al 3 A. NJ. and in the evening
continued bis journey till P. N. This gives TWO
and-a-halt hours IN the morning aud the same az
night of torsl darkness, in an uukno~u, Dathless.
tropical eoantry, aud be even aseends part OF d
dangerous mountain tull OF assures aud huge
rocks, till niue o'clock at night The country.
too, was full OF yeuomous snakes; and huge
scorpions foot loug, whose sting was certain
death. were very abundant; aud as these last
are noctursl animals, travelling in darkness
among assured rocks and dense vegetation must
have been exciting. But then we are told that
be carried ! lau:hOrH. and By means OF this arti-
6eial Illumination Il Is to be supposed the whole
party made good progress and b4fied the scor.
pIous-
More marvellous still is the ascent OF Mount
HercuIes, 32.7S3 feet high. lie starts With one
native IRON the foot Of the mountain st A. NJ
Carrying food, water, arms, aud blankets" and
ascends 1000 feet by uine O'Clock 1t 5000
feet they came to snow, bot continued on Tor
many thousand feet more. and BY l P. NJ had
reached height Of . 3l4 feet, the temperature
being - : below freezing This is certainly
good climbing, as it Is Just 1000 feet higher
than ChImoOrazJ from the sea4egel, and more
than twice Is high as Mont Blanc is above
Ch2moani. The Alpine Club must hide their
diminished leads after this. Of course, having
turned back 1t one o'clock our travellers arrived
safely At their camp at f-3O Pm. A tinted
view Of this souderful mountain forms the fruu-
tispiecs 70 the book
Having digested this Alpine feat as best We
may, let Us turn to Capt LAwsons sccouut Of
the ustursl history Of the island. IL NAV be
promised for the benefit of neurological read,
efs, that New Guinea belongs to the Australian
Tegi0s, and that EILh the exception Of bats and
8 wild pig. all the known mammalia are mar
supials, four species Of ksngaroos several spe
cies OF CGscus ian animal someghat Ike 81
opossum), and some smaller marsupisl form;
being known. The coasts have been visited for
centuries, and general excursions have beeu
made in the interior OF the northern part of the
island, while the southern portions have also
been several times visited by og- various survey
ing parties The islands all round it agree in hi:
exclusion Of all mammaliA bat marsupials b.
Capt LAWSON tells a quite different tale. He
met with no solitary kangaroo or Caseus FL
through New Guinea. bot be everywhere en-
counlersd deer OF several species, wild buffaIoes
Wild goats. wild cattle Of usH species, hares
foxes. wonderful new tiger l0Gg-tailed mon
keys and huge man-IIke apes or birds We have
g4ihG CuEteIAi!F AOGA1LlOe GuQ DtfQs OF HGr1
disc, bat along with these, pheasants wood
peckers, snd Eutares the two former not kuosr
within thousand, the latter within two thous
and niles Of New Guinea The natives, too
have great herds Of hump backed cattle, and fal
ia the Interior many Of them speak Dutch
Hardly less absurd are Capt LaEsou's zouder
fal hanting feats and hairbceadLh escapes The
monkeys Of New Guinea seem remarkable f1l
waiting to De shot At. although. as the native:
have guns a. shoot them for food, theT Eoulc
IN other countries have become vary Yet out
aathoc goes out with q native chief to shOot
moukeys, and II 9 couple Of hours they bag !
score and wound several others Again 10 sr
hours shooting he kIils thirty nine ducks, five
Ibisss, Two storks, EsTen kingeshers, aad TIRES
new birds" The deer are seen IN herds Of two
or three hundred" the wild goats generally 70
in -adeks Of seEeaty or eightyr A herd Of a
least ten thousand bQtfaloes was seq, and in 1
tree more than thousand hanging nests OF one
species Of bird we're counted, each nest too. coa
tanning several distinct families Cant. LAWSON
i tossed and then tranplsd 90 By wild buffalo
and when recovered so that be coQld walk .
few PAGES. leaning 90 the arm Of Que Of bis At
tsndants," he goes fishing. and IL two hocr.
~pQlled out over hundred fish, the largest a
yard lorg, not TO mention many large fsh
which broke away from the h1ok A haze Nez
Gainea tiger gets him IN It's clutches, bot thoagh
the animal was larger than Bengal tiger. be a
course escapes. th0agh -dre1ehed with the Moo