6 OKHAMANDAL MARINE ZOOLOGY REPORT 



the lead we could tell the moment we arrived on this bank. As pearl-oyster 

 ground the Gurrur is hopeless a battle-field of tide and current. 



On the northern aspect of Okhamandal more favourable conditions prevail, as the 

 shore-line and the shallows there are in a large measure protected from the violence 

 both of the south-west and north-east monsoons. Especially is this the case with 

 the great bight formed by the deep horseshoe curve of what may be termed Beyt 

 Harbour, using the name in a widely comprehensive manner. This bay or harbour 

 has as its two horns, Yamiani Point and Samiani Island on the west, and Poshetra 

 Point on the east, with the long, irregular mass of Beyt Island lying athwart the 

 entrance, and sending irregular promontories so far within the bay itself as to reduce 

 the latter to little more than a reef-choked, rather wide channel between the island 

 and the mainland. Through this passage, Beyt Harbour, a strong tide-race runs, 

 bearing food matter in profusion to every corner of the littoral. T he rocky reefs 

 and islets that crowd the western and south-western sections set up an intricate 

 network of cross currents and eddies, ever changing with the phase of the tide, and 

 aiding powerfully in the distribution of the planktonic food supply. Never have I 

 seen a richer and more diversified fauna within such a limited area. Within 

 a distance of eight miles the faunal association changes completely full half a 

 dozen times. On the rocky littoral of Adatra, we have a profusion of massive 

 corals, sponges, and alcyonarians ; half a mile on we reach the Zostera and Halophila 

 prairies of Ararnra with muddy fiats supporting the edible oyster in profusion. 



Another two miles and the muddy rocky littoral of Kiu reveals at low tide 

 the strangest forest in miniature we could imagine. Over several acres of the 

 lowest zone of the littoral uncovered at the greater spring tides, myriads of the 

 short-branched parchment tubes of the polychaet worm Eunice tubifex rear their 

 stalks above the surface to a height of eight to ten inches. Plate III. is a view of 

 a portion of this strangely covered ground, a scene unique in the whole of my 

 experience. Dense tufts and tassels of long-branched, elegant Bryozoa drape and 

 smother from view many of the tubes, the stalks and branches further clothed with 

 many-coloured crusting species of sponges and tunicates. 



Move but a short distance seawards to the deeper water of the channel, and the 

 dredge brings up great scarlet and orange-coloured sea-fans (Gorgonids) and the whips 

 of the related Juncella, together with a variety of sea-urchins and starfishes. 1 Still 

 another short move to the muddy Bay of Balapur on the east side of Beyt Island 

 and we come across multitudes of mud-dwellers of forms totally distinct from those 

 of Aramra and Kiu, for we discovered here what appeared to be an extensive bed 

 of window-pane oysters (Placuna placenta) and great quantities of a fine species 

 of the brachiopod Lingula. On the sands at higher level on the littoral, great 

 numbers of a burrowing Nemertine worm were met with, speckled on the dorsum to 



1 See illustrations to the Report on the Alcyonaria. 





