T i !
' 'I
552 K E E L IN G ISLAND. April, 1836.
a visit to the sea, no doubt for the purpose of moistening
its branchicE. The young are likewise hatched, and live for
some time, on the coast. These crabs inhabit deep burrows,
which they excavate beneath the roots of tr ee s; and here
they accumulate surprising quantities of the picked fibres
of the cocoa-nut husk, on which they rest as on a bed.
The Malays sometimes take advantage of their labour by
collecting the course fibrous substance and using it as junk.
These crabs are very good to ea t; moreover under the tail of
the larger ones there is a great mass of fat, which when melted
sometimes yields as much as a quart bottle full of limpid oil.
It has been stated by some autliors that the Birgos latro
crawls up the cocoa-nut trees for the purpose of stealing the
nuts : I very much doubt the possibility of this; but with
the Paiidanus* the task would be very much easier. I understood
from Mr. Liesk that on these islands the Birgos lives
only on the nuts which fall to the ground.
I was a good deal surprised by finding two species of coral
of the genus Millepora, possessed of the property of stinging.
The stony branches or plates when taken fresh from the
water have a harsh feel and are not slimy, although possessing
a strong and disagreeable odour. The stinging property
seems to vary within certain limits in dilferent specimens:
when a piece was pressed or rubbed on the tender skin of the
face or arm, a pricking sensation was generally caused, which
came on after the interval of a second, and lasted only for
a short time. One day, however, by merely touching my
face with one of the branches the pain was instantaneous ;
it increased as usual after a few seconds, and remaining
sharp for some minutes, was perceptible for half an hour
afterwards. The sensation was as bad as that from a nettle,
but more like that caused by the Portuguese man-of-war
{Physalia). Little red spots were produced on the tender
skin of the arm, which appeared as if they would have formed
watery pustules, but did not. The circumstance of this sting-
* S e e P ro c e e d in g s o f Zoo lo g ical S o c iety , 183-2, p. 17.
April, 1836.
ing property is not new, though it has scarcely been sufficiently
remarked on. M. Quoy* mentions it, and I have
heard of stinging corals in the West Indies. In the East
Indian sea a stinging sea-weed also is found.
There was another and quite distinct kind of coral, which
was remarkable from the change of colour, which it underwent
shortly after death; when alive it was of a honey-
yellow, but some hours after being taken out of water, it
became as black as ink. I may just mention, as partly connected
with the above subjects, that there are here two
species of fish, of the genus Sparus, which exclusively feed
on coral. Both are coloured of a splendid bluish-green,
one living invariably in the lagoon, and the other amongst
the outer breakers. Mr. Liesk assured us that he had
repeatedly seen whole shoals grazing with their strong bony
jaws on the tops of the coral branches.t I opened the intestines
of several, and found them distended with a yellowish
calcareous matter. These fish, together with the lithopha-
gous shells and nereidous animals, which perforate every
block of dead coral, must be very efficient agents in producing
the finest kind of mud, and this, when derived from
such materials, appears to be the same with chalk.
A p r i l 1 2 t h .—In the morning, we stood out of the Lagoon.
I am glad we have visited these islands: such formations
surely rank high amongst the wonderful objects of this
world. It is not a wonder, which at first strikes the eye of
the body, but rather, after reflection, the eye of reason. We
feel surprised, when travellers relate accounts of the vast
extent of certain ancient ruins ; but how utterly insignificant
are the greatest of these, when compared to the pile of stone
here accumulated by the work of various minute animals.
Throughout the whole group of islands, every single atom,!
* F r e y c in e t’s Voyage, vol. i., p . 5 97.
I I t h a s som e tim e s b e e n th o u g h t {vide Q u o y in F r e y c in c t’s V o y ag e ),
th a t c o ra l-e a tin g fish w e re p o iso n o u s ; su ch c e rta in ly was n o t th e case with
th e s e S p ari.
'I 1 ex c lu d e , o f co u rse , th e soil which h a s b e en b ro u g h t h e re in vessels