The New International Encyclopædia/New Mecklenburg

NEW MECK′LENBURG (formerly New Ireland). The second largest of the Bismarck Archipelago (q.v.), situated in the Pacific Ocean, 350 miles northeast of New Guinea, and separated from New Pomerania, the largest of the group, by Saint George Channel (Map: Australasia, H 3). It is elongated, has an area of 4920 square miles, and consists for the most part of mountains covered with forests of large trees. Little is known of the interior of the island, but the coast lands are very fertile. Colonization of the island has been unsuccessful; there is a trading station on the north coast, but in 1897 there were only nine European inhabitants, the bulk of the population, whose number is unknown, being savage Melanesians.