BOOBY ISLAND. 363 



very different materials may become associated or superposed. 

 A large Chania shell is very abundant, cemented to the hard 

 porphyry rocks, and recalled to one's mind forcibly the extinct 

 Hippurites. 



The hills of the island are covered with a scrub, nowhere 

 very dense or high, whilst there are small mangrove swamps at 

 the edge of the mud flats. The low sandy tracts are open, 

 covered with scattered gum trees with long grass growing 

 beneath them, just as at Cape York. The long grass and 

 bushes were parched and dry, and burnt rapidly when we fired 

 them. On the shore were an Oyster-catcher, a small Plover, and 

 a Sandpiper, in flocks. The few Land-birds seen, were Cape York 

 species, the common Bee-eater, little Ground Dove, Artamus, 

 White Cockatoo, and a Brush Turkey. 



Close to the shore were two native graves, and the remains 

 of shelters made of branches, and of fires. The island is often 

 visited by the natives of the Straits when on their voyages, but 

 not permanently inhabited. There were two graves placed side 

 by side, consisting of oblong mounds of sand, each with six 

 wooden posts placed regularly at the corners and middles of the 

 longer sides. The posts had many of them large shells placed 

 on their tops as decorations ; the mounds were decorated with 

 ribs of Dugongs, placed regularly along their sides and arching 

 over them, whilst Dugong skulls, all without the tusks, and large 

 shells adorned their summits. 



In dredging in shallow water off Wednesday Island, a mon- 

 ster Starfish was obtained, apparently a species of Oreaster ; it 

 measured 1 ft. 9 ins. from tip to tip of its arms, and 5 inches in 

 the height of its central disc. 



Booby Island, Torres Straits, Sept. 9th, 1874. — On the fol- 

 lowing day I landed on Booby Island, which acts as a sign-post 

 to ships entering the Prince of Wales Passage from the Arafura 

 Sea, on the other side of Torres Straits. The island is of the 

 same coarse quartz and felspar rock as Wednesday Island ; it is 

 only about two-thirds of a mile in circumference, and 30 to 40 

 feet in height. The greater part of the rock is white with the 

 dung of sea birds, the Booby and the "Wideawake," which 

 frequent it in vast numbers. The birds were, however, not 



