388 A NATURALIST ON THE "CHALLENGER." 



honour being paid to the Dutch flag ; so two small Armstrong 

 breech-loaders were let off alternately through the bow ports. 



The old Dutch saluting guns on the fort seemed to return 

 the unpleasant noisy compliment with some difficulty, and one 

 of them leapt off the parapet into the ditch, in the excitement of 

 unwonted exercise. It is to be hoped, that before long the 

 intolerable nuisance of saluting will be done away with ; it is 

 most astonishing that civilized persons can be so much the 

 slaves of habit, as to make a painful noise of this kind when 

 necessity does not require it ; everyone concerned dislikes the 

 noise, and there is a great waste of material. 



The custom, however, shows signs of dying out, for it has 

 reached already to some extent a rudimentary condition. In 

 large war- vessels, the actual fighting guns are considered too big 

 to be played with in this manner, and a special saluting battery 

 of small old pattern guns, useless for any other purpose, is kept 

 mounted on the forecastle for the sole sake of making this 

 hideous noise. 



I have read of a case in which in a small out-of-the-way 

 European colony, the governor had to send on board a foreign 

 man-of-war which had arrived in his port to beg for powder to 

 return the customary salute. We may, however, congratulate 

 ourselves that matters might be worse ; there are some unfor- 

 tunate races, the members of which have to spend their money 

 in powder and let it off, on all occasions of petty private 

 domestic rejoicing. 



The coral banks, though abundant, were not so easily acces- 

 sible at Amboina as at Bancla, being in deeper water, and 

 specimens of most of the species could only be procured by deep 

 wading and diving. After diving for corals in a depth of about 

 ten to twelve feet, I found my eyes very sore for some hours 

 afterwards. I believe that this soreness was most probably 

 produced by the stinging organs of the corals ; all corals are 

 provided with urticating organs. The stinging produced by the 

 Hydroid corals of the genus Millepora was long ago noted by 

 Darwin and others.* In the West Indies the coral is sometimes 

 called sea-ginger. 



* " Journal of Kesearches," p. 464. 



