Under either case, however, we have the phænomenon of a transition in form.
NEW GUINEA.
Physical appearance of the natives of the north-west extremity, i.e., from Waigiú to Dorey.—1st Variety—Undersized, slender, with oval features, and skin more brown than black, hair elaborately frizzed.
Fig. 6.
Fig. 7.
2nd Variety.—Form squat, faces square and angular, cheek-bones prominent, lips thick, skin rough and black, hair simply tied up.
South-western coast.—Portions of the south-western coast of New Guinea were visited by H.M.S. Fly, in 1842-1846, under Captain Blackwood. The notices of Mr. Jukes upon the natives thus seen are short, and chiefly limited to the points wherein they differed or agreed with the islanders of Torres Straits—a portion of the human species that has been described fully for the first time by that writer. Tall and muscular, with the hair tied back behind, sometimes with the head shaved, the skin dark brown or copper-coloured, with ornaments like the people of Erroob, and without out-riggers to their canoes, or with out-riggers on one side only, they spoke a language different from that of the Torres Straits islanders.
In appearance, however, they agreed. Their huts were raised on piles, of moderate dimension, and with small plots of imperfectly-cleared ground around them. The coast was low, and intersected by numerous freshwater channels; and the name given to the country by the Erroobians was Dowdee.