whole length (300 miles) from Mount Yule to Heath Bay was in full view:
the outline was irregular but never suddenly so, and no peaks or other
remarkable points were seen.

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