VARIETIES OF THE PAPUAN RACE AND THEIR DISTRIBUTION.

It appears to me that there are two distinct varieties of the Papuan race
inhabiting the south-east portion of New Guinea. The first occupies the
western shores of the Great Bight, and probably extends over the whole of
the adjacent country, along the banks of Aird River, and the other great
freshwater channels. Judging from the little that was seen of them during
the voyage of the Fly, these people appear to agree with the Torres
Strait Islanders--an offshoot, there is reason to believe, of the same
stock--in being a dark and savage race, the males of which go entirely
naked.

The second variety occupies the remainder of the south-east coast of New
Guinea and the Louisiade Archipelago. Their characteristics have already
been given in this work, as seen at intermediate points between Cape
Possession and Coral Haven; they agree in being a lighter-coloured people
than the preceding, and more advanced in civilisation: mop-headed,
practising betel-chewing, and wearing the breech-cloth. Without entering
into the question of their supposed origin, I may state that, in some of
their physical, intellectual, and moral characters, and also partially in
their language, they seem to me to show indications of a
Malayo-Polynesian influence, probably acquired before their arrival in
New Guinea, along the shores of which they seem to have extended,
colonising the Louisiade during their progress, which at Cape Possession
was finally arrested by their meeting with the other section of the race
alluded to in the preceding paragraph.

It would be curious to see the effects produced at the point of junction
of these two sections of the same race, probably somewhere between Aird