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In Holman’s* Travels, an account is given on the authority
of Mr. A. S. Keating, who resided twelve months on
these islands, of the various seeds, and other bodies, which
have been known to have been washed on shore. “ Seeds
and plants from Sumatra and Java have been driven up by
the surf on the windward side of the islands. Among them
have been found the Kimiri, native of Sumatra and the
peninsula of Malacca; the cocoa-nut of Balci, known by its
shape and siz e ; the Dadass, which is planted by the Malays
with the pepper-vine, the latter intwiiiing round its trunk,
and supporting itself by the prickles on its stem; the soap-
tr e e ; the castor-oil plant; trunks of the sago palm; and
various kinds of seeds unknown to the Malays who settled
on the islands. These are all supposed to have been driven
on shore hy the N.W. monsoon to the coast of New
Holland, and thence to these islands by the S.E. trade-
wind. Large masses of J ava teak, and yellow wood, have
also been found, besides immense trees, of red and white
cedar, and the blue gum-wood of New Holland, in a perfectly
sound condition. All the hardy seeds, such as
creepers, retain their germinating power, but the softer
kinds, among which is the mangostin, are destroyed in the
passage. Fishing-canoes, apparently from Java, have at
times been washed on shore.” It is interesting thus to
discover how numerous the seeds are, which, coming from
several countries, are drifted over the wide ocean. Professor
Henslow tells me, he believes that nearly all the
plants which I brought from this island, are common littoral
species in the East Indian archipelago. From the direction,
however, of the winds and currents, it seems scarcely
possible that they can have come here in a direct line. If, as
suggested with much probability by Mr. Keating, they have
first been carried towards the coast of New Holland, and
thence drifted back again, together with the productions of
* H o lm a n ’s T ra v e ls , vol. iv., p . 378.
that country, the seeds, before germinating, must have
travelled between 1800 and 2400 miles.
Chamisso,* when describing the Radack Archipelago,
situated in the central part of the Western Pacific, states
that, “ The sea brings to these islands the seeds and fruits
of many trees, most of which have yet not grown here.
The greater part of tliese seeds appear to have not yet lost
the capability of growing.” It is also said that trunks of
northern firs are washed on shore, which must have been
floated from an immense distance. These facts are highly
interesting. It cannot be doubted, if there were land-bii ds
to pick up the seeds when first cast on shore, and a soil
more adapted for their growth than the loose blocks of
coral, that such islands, although so isolated, would soon
possess a more abundant Flora.
The list of land-animals is even poorer than that of plants.
Some of the islets are inhabited by rats; and their origin is
known to be due to a ship from the Mauritius, which was
wrecked here. These rats have rather a different appearance
from the English kin d; they are smaller and much more
brightly coloured. There are no true land-birds; for a snipe
and a rail {lialhis phi/iippensis), though living entirely among
the dry herbage, belong to the order of Waders. Birds of
this order are said to occur on several of the low islands
in the Pacific. At Ascension a rail [Porp/iyriol) was shot
near the summit of the mountain; and it was evidently a
solitary straggler. From these circumstances, I believe,
the waders are the first colonists of any island, after the innumerable
web-footed species. I may add, that whenever I
have noticed birds, which were not pelagic, very far out at
sea, they always belonged to this order; and hence they
would naturally become the earliest colonist of any distant
point.
Of reptiles, I saw only one small lizard. Of insects, I took
pains to collect every kind. Exclusive of spiders, which
K o tz e b u e ’s F ir s t Voyage, vol. iii., p. 155.