I may mention here in relation to this part of New Guinea, though not in continuance of the narrative, that the Barrier Reef, beginning (or ending) at Low Island, is continued to the southward and eastward for 150 miles, as far as Cape Colombier, generally following the trend of the coast, at a distance off it from three to fifteen miles.  A long strip of apparently navigable water is thus enclosed between the reef and the shore, with numerous passages, many of which appeared to be clear to Lieutenant Yule as he passed along close to the outer margin of the reef.

HARBOURS INSIDE THE BARRIER REEF.

Some good harbours doubtless exist here; the Bramble passed through Roundhead Entrance and found good anchorage in fifteen fathoms immediately inside.  The whole of this extent of coast appeared to be well peopled.  On the western side of Mount Astrolabe, for instance, numerous villages and patches of cultivated land were seen from the Bramble.

THE SAGO PALM.

Both in Redscar Bay and for the first two or three days after leaving it numbers of sago palms, some quite recent, were observed on the water, occasionally with boobies and noddies perched upon them.  These trees had probably grown upon the banks of the rivers of the bay, and been washed away by the undermining of the low alluvial banks on which they grow, and carried out to sea by the current.  Along several of the freshwater channels on the western side of the Great Bight examined by the Fly’s boats in 1844, I had seen this palm growing on the margin of the stream in great profusion, and according to Giaom, the bisi tree (as she called it) is occasionally carried by the winds and currents as far south as the Prince of Wales Islands, when the natives scoop out the soft spongy inner wood, wash it well with fresh water, beat it up into a pulp, separate the farinaceous substance which falls to the bottom of the vessel, and bake it as bread.  On no part of the coast of New Guinea, however, did we ever see any of this sago bread, which is known to constitute the principal food of the inhabitants of the north-west coast of that great island.*

(Footnote.  Forrest endeavours to show that an acre of ground planted with 300 sago palms will maintain fourteen men, as each tree produces 300 pounds of sago flour, when arrived at full maturity in its seventh year.  Voyage to New Guinea and the Moluccas in 1774 to 1776 by Captain Thomas Forrest second edition page 44.)

On one occasion lately the water was discoloured by a conferva resembling the sea-sawdust of Captain Cook, with which it was found to agree generically in consisting of long filaments joined together by a softer gelatinous-looking substance.  The present species, however, is six times larger than the more common sort, some of which was mixed up with it, their diameters as ascertained by Mr. Huxley, being respectively 8 1/2 over 5000 and 1 1/8 over 5000 of an inch.