246 SHELLS AND HERMIT CRABS. 



for sing'ularity of form and brilliancy of colouring* I 

 may mention Holocentrum^ fiYQ kinds of which were 

 procured here^ one brilliantly coloured with blue and 

 silver, and the remainder more or less of a brio-ht 

 scarlet. 



The land-shells appear here to be limited to a soli- 

 tary Helicina^ found on the leaves and trunks of 

 trees ] and the trifling' amount of rise and fall of tide^ 

 not exceeding' three feet^ prevented any search for 

 marine species upon the reef. By dredg-ing*^ how- 

 ever^ in some of the sandy channels among' the coral 

 patches^ in two to three fathoms water^ some small 

 MitrcDy Nasscc^ SuhulfSj and other interesting- shells 

 w^ere procured^ but no zoophytes came up in the 

 dredg'e^ and hardly any Crustacea. One can scarcely 

 avoid taking" notice of the prodigious numbers of 

 small hermit'CYdLhs ( Coenohita) tenanting' dead uni- 

 valve shells^ and occm'ring- from the marg-in of the 

 beach as far back as the centre of the islands^ where 

 they are found even in the holes of decaying' trees at 

 some heig'ht above the gTound. 



Dm'ing- om' stay at this anchorage the weather 

 was fine for the first three days, but afterwards was 

 usually hazy^ with strong* breezes from between east 

 and south-east^ with squalls and occasional showers^ 

 the thermometer rang-ing* between 72° and 85° — re- 

 Sea. The family Sparidce is that best represented in the Louisiade 

 Archipelago so far as I could judge, — three species of Pentapus 

 numerically more than equal all the rest, and the next commonest 

 fish is Diacope oeto-liaeata. 



