Volume I Part 9 (1/2)
ANIMALS OF A CORAL REEF.
During our stay we were fortunate in having fine weather, light winds, and low tides, which enabled such as were inclined to look for sh.e.l.ls upon the reef to do so under the most favourable circ.u.mstances. This reef is of great extent, with all the varieties of coral, mud, and sand, and proved a most productive one. A sketch of the distribution of the princ.i.p.al of its productions may be of interest to some. Many kinds of fishes, Muraena, Diodon, Balistes, Serra.n.u.s, etc. are found in the pools among the coral blocks; the first of these, of bright colours variously striped and spotted, resemble water-snakes, and are exceedingly active, gliding through the interstices in the coral and hiding in its hollows--they bite savagely at a stick presented to them, and are by no means pleasant neighbours while wading about knee-deep and with bare arms turning over the coral which they frequent. On a former occasion I had been laid hold of by the thumb, and the wound was a long time in healing.
Crustacea are also numerous; blue and green Gonodactyli leap about with a sharp clicking noise--legions of Mycteris subverrucata traverse the dry sands at low-water--and in the shallow muddy pools, dull green Thalamitae and Lupeae swim off rapidly, and smooth Calappae seek refuge by burrowing under the surface.
Of mollusca, two species of olive (O. Erythrostoma and O. leucophoea) were found on the sandy margin of the islet--several Cerithia and Subulae (S. maculata and S. oculata) creep along the sand flats, and, with some fine Naticae, and a Pyramidella, may be found by tracing the marks of their long burrows. Several Strombi and Na.s.sa coronata inhabit the shallow sandy pools; the egg-sh.e.l.l and many Cypraeae occur under coral blocks, which, when over sand, often harbour different kinds of cones--of which the handsome C. textile is the commonest. A delicate white Lima (Lima fragilis) is abundant here, merrily swimming away in the pool under an upturned stone, and leaving its fringe-like tentacles adhering to the hand when seized. Lastly, it would be improper to omit mentioning the very fine oysters adhering to the roots of the mangroves. But these are only a small portion of the sh.e.l.lfish collected here. Among radiate animals, several Ophiurae and Ophiocomae and other Asteriadae, with two kinds of Echinus, are also plentiful under blocks of coral (Astraea and Maeandrina) in the pools; one of the last, remarkable for its very long, slender, black spines, has the power of giving an exceedingly painful puncture, if carelessly handled--for a few minutes the sensation is similar to that caused by the sting of a wasp; of the others, a fine Ophiura is remarkable for its great size and gra.s.s-green colour, and an Ophiocoma for the prodigious length of its arms.
HOPE ISLANDS.
July 19th.
Six days ago we anch.o.r.ed under the lee of the reef on which the Hope Islands are situated, but in a position which afforded little shelter.
While off Cape Tribulation, a remarkable hill in the background so strongly reminded us of the Peter Botte at Mauritius, that it was so named upon our chart--it is 3,311 feet in height, the Cape itself being 1,454 feet. For about six days lately the weather has been very boisterous, blowing hard from East-South-East with a considerable sea.
The weather having at length moderated, I yesterday and today visited the islands composing the group. A deep and clear channel of a mile in width separates these islands, the larger of which is surrounded completely, and the smaller partially, by an extensive reef. The former, or western one, is merely a long strip of heaped-up coral and sh.e.l.ls, with a little sand and some driftwood running parallel to the outer edge of the reef, in the direction of the prevailing wind. It is overrun with low bushes, and a few other plants, such as the large purple-flowered Bossioea, and Ipomoea maritima. A long bank of dead coral only a few feet above high-water mark, with an intervening ditch-like hollow, separates it from the sea to the eastward; while on the other side, towards the reef, it is margined with tall mangroves. Small and barren though this spot be, it is yet inhabited by lizards and a species of rat. Besides the usual waders on the reef, I found great numbers of doves and honeysuckers, and, among the mangroves, fell in with and procured specimens of a very rare kingfisher, Halcyon sordida. Among the mangroves a rare sh.e.l.l, a species of Quoyia, occurred.
The eastern and northern islet is nearly circular, half a mile in circ.u.mference--formed of coral and sh.e.l.l-sand, covered with bushes and small trees. The most conspicuous plant is the p.r.i.c.kly Guilandina bonduc, the long briar-like trailing and climbing shoots of which impede one while traversing the thickets. A pair of white-headed sea-eagles had established their aerie in a tree not more than twenty feet from the ground, and I could not resist the temptation of robbing them of their eggs.
THREE ISLES.
July 28th.
Anch.o.r.ed under the Three Isles, between Capes Bedford and Flattery. The princ.i.p.al one of the group, situated to leeward of an extensive reef, is margined towards the reef by beds of coral--conglomerate, and elsewhere by a sandy beach--it is half a mile in length, composed of coral sand, the highest part not more than twelve feet above high-water mark, with several groves of low trees, and is overrun with tall sedge-like gra.s.s; the second is composed of a strip of heaped-up fragments of coral, to windward covered with bushes, and to leeward separated from the reef by a belt of mangroves; the third is a mere clump of mangroves not deserving of further notice. The botany of an island of this cla.s.s, of which there are many on the North-east coast of Australia, may serve as a specimen, as the plants are few. Mimusops kaukii const.i.tuted the princ.i.p.al part of the arboreal vegetation, Clerodendrum inerme and Premna obtusifolia form low straggling thickets--scattered bushes of Suriana maritima and Pemphis acida fringe the sandy margin of the island, and behind these the beautiful Josephinia grandiflora, a large white-flowered Calyptranthus, Vitex ovata and a Tribulus creep along the sand, or spread out their proc.u.mbent branches.
Traces of natives, but not very recent, were met with in a dried-up well dug to a great depth, and several low, dome-shaped huts, and numerous fireplaces, around which remains of sh.e.l.lfish and turtles were profusely scattered. Many of the heads of these last animals were here and elsewhere seen stuck upon branches of trees, sometimes a dozen together.
July 31st.
I landed this morning with Mr. Obree, on one of the Two Isles off Cape Flattery, and we were picked up by the s.h.i.+p in pa.s.sing. It is well-wooded, chiefly with the Mimusops kaukii, trees of which are here often sixty feet high and 3 in diameter. Under the bark I found two new land-sh.e.l.ls (to be described in the Appendix) one of them a flattish Helix, in prodigious numbers--and this more than ever satisfied me that even the smallest islands and detached reefs of the north-east coast may have species peculiar to themselves, nor did I ever return from any one of the 37 upon which I landed without some acquisitions to the collection.
STAY AT LIZARD ISLAND.
We remained a fortnight at Lizard Island, at the usual anchorage, off a sandy beach on its north-western side. Lizard Island is conspicuous from a distance, on account of its peak*--the central part of a mountainous ridge running across the island, and dividing it into two portions, of which the eastern is hilly and the western low, and intersected by small ridges of slight elevation. The island is about 2 1/2 miles in greatest diameter; the rock is a coa.r.s.e grey granite, easily decomposable. A large gra.s.sy plain enters westward from the central ridge--a portion of this, half a mile from the beach, densely covered with coa.r.s.e gra.s.s and reeds and scattered over with Panda.n.u.s trees, is usually a marsh. At present it is dry, with a few pools of fresh water, connected below with a mangrove swamp opening upon the beach by a narrow creek. Formerly boats could ascend this a little way, but now the entrance dries across at low-water--nor could the fresh water conveniently be conducted to the beach by the hose and engine, as I had seen done in the Fly in the month of May. Fortunately, however, we found a small stream in a valley on the northern corner of the island, which supplied our wants.
(*Footnote. Captain Stanley's azimuth and alt.i.tude observations, taken at two stations at the base, the distance between having been measured by the micrometer, give its height as 1,161 feet; and Lieutenant Dayman's barometrical measurement makes it 1,151 feet, above the sea level.)
Although the dry barren nature of the soil--varying from coa.r.s.e quartzose sand (from the disintegrated granite) to reddish clay--is not favourable to the growth of luxuriant vegetation, still several interesting plants were added to the herbarium. Of these the finest is a new Cochlospermum, a low-spreading tree, nearly leafless at this time, but covered with cl.u.s.ters of very large and showy golden blossoms. A heath-like shrub (Chamaelaucium) common here, was remarkable for existing on the open plains as a weak prostrate plant, while in the scrub it formed a handsome bush 10 feet high, with a stem 6 inches in diameter.
Of quail, which in 1844 were very abundant, I saw not more than one or two--probably the burning of the gra.s.s during the breeding season had effected this partial clearance. Snakes appear to be numerous--two out of three which I examined were poisonous--the other was the diamond snake of New South Wales. A very fine land sh.e.l.l, Helix bipart.i.ta, was found in colonies at the roots of the trees and bushes. A large and handsome cowrie, Cypraea mauritiana, generally distributed among the islands of the Pacific, was here found for the first time in Australia.
EAGLE ISLAND.
August 1st.
I crossed over to Eagle Island with Mr. Brown, and spent a day and night there. This place was so named by Cook, who states in explanation of the name--”We found here the nest of some other bird, we know not what, of a most enormous size. It was built with sticks upon the ground, and was no less than 26 feet in circ.u.mference, and two feet eight inches high.”* An American professor** conjectures the above nest to have possibly been that of the Dinornis, the gigantic New Zealand bird, known only by its fossil remains. A very slight knowledge, however, of ornithology, would be sufficient to confute the notion of any struthious bird constructing a nest of this kind, or of a wingless land bird of great size inhabiting an islet only a quarter of a mile in length. Both Mr. Gould and myself have seen nests of the same construction, the work of the large fis.h.i.+ng-eagle of Australia.
(*Footnote. Hawkesworth's Voyages volume 2 page 599.)
(**Footnote. In Silliman's Journal for July 1844.)
This island is low and sandy, with a few casuarinas, or she-oaks, a fringe of Suriana maritima, some Tournefortiae, and thickets of Clerodendrum inerme. Landrail and other birds were numerous. The reef, which is very extensive, did not dry throughout at low-water, but some sandbanks along its lee margin were exposed, and upon them I found the greatest a.s.semblage of pretty sh.e.l.ls that I ever met with at one place.