The armed party from the _Merrie England_ shot down several of the natives, and informed the others that, unless the ringleaders were given up, they would destroy the village and its inhabitants. Two more good and true men have been added to the long list of those who have met with a tragic death in British New Guinea. Let us trust that they may be the last. The hope is no doubt a vain one, but we cannot be blamed for expressing such a wish. CHAPTER XI. CONCLUSION. The coast runs as nearly as possible west-north-west and east-south-east. It has a most bold appearance, mountains of Alpine height, from 8,000 to 13,000 feet, rearing their heads, looking down in their awful majesty, backed by lofty ranges covered with dense scrub. The geological formation is sometimes basaltic, at others slate, porphyry, etc. Numbers of coral reefs jut out from the mainland, making the navigation difficult. Hundreds of islands of various extent are dotted here and there, sparkling in the sun like gems, diversifying the scene and lending colour to the landscape. There are several magnificent rivers which carry off the great torrents of water from the mountains, notably the "Fly," named by the officers of H.M.S. _Fly_, when engaged in surveying the south coast in the year 1845. The "Fly" empties itself into the great "Gulf of Papua" and is navigable for six hundred miles from the coast inland. It will be the main waterway of New Guinea in the future. Then there are the "Baxter," the "San Joseph," "Aird," and "Tait," besides many others of less importance. The harbours are few and far between; the principal ones in British New Guinea are China Straits on the south-east coast, and Port Moresby and Hall Sound on the south coast. There are no wild animals in the strict sense of the term, the chief ones being the wild ordinary tusked hog (Babi-rusa), cassowary, wallaby, tree-kangaroo (Dendrolagus), cuscus, opossum and alligators. Snakes are to be met with, but are not so numerous as in Queensland. There are numbers of birds of beautiful plumage, the far-famed Bird of Paradise, of which there are something like twenty varieties, whose haunt is the tallest trees on the mainland, some 40 or 50 varieties of pigeons, the gigantic crowned pigeon among them, the rifle bird, etc. Besides these, there are thousands of scrub hens, parrots, cockatoos (both black and white), and the flying fox, a species of bat, which, when young, is capital eating. At night, just after sundown, they come in large flocks to the trees, where they feed on the fruit.