434 A NATURALIST ON THE ''CHALLENGER." 



Hence one end becomes water-logged before the other ; I could 

 arrive at no other explanation of the circumstance. 



It is evident that a wide area of the sea off the mouth of the 

 Ambernoh Eiver is thus constantlv covered with drift-wood, for 

 the floating wood is inhabited by various animals, which seem to 

 belong to it as it were. The fruits and wood were covered with 

 the eggs of a Gasteropod Mollusk, and with a Hydroid, and the 

 interstices were filled with Eadiolarians washed into them and 

 gathered in masses, just as Diatoms in the Antarctic seas are 

 gathered together in the honeycombed ice. Two species of Crabs 

 inhabit the logs in abundance, and a small Dendrocoele Planarian 

 swarms all over the drift matter and on the living crabs also. 

 A Lepas was common on the logs. 



Enormous quantities of small fish swarmed under the drift- 

 wood, and troops of Dolphins (Coryphcenci) and small Sharks 

 (Car char ias), three or four feet long, were seen feeding on them, 

 dashing in amongst the logs, splashing the water, and showing 

 above the surface, as they darted on their prey. The older wood 

 was bored by a Pholas. 



A large flock of the very widely spread bird, the Phalarope 

 (Phalorapus hyperboreus) was seen Hying over the drift-wood. 

 The birds no doubt follow the timber out from shore, and roost 

 on it. In England we consider this bird as one of our visitors 

 from the far north. It seems strange to meet with it at New 

 Guinea. It was previously known from the Aru Islands. Some 

 specimens shot had small surface Crustacea in their stomachs. 



The various smaller animals no doubt congregate about the 

 drift-wood because it seems so act as a sort of sieve or screen, 

 and to concentrate amongst it the surface animals on which they 

 feed. 



The Charles Lewis Mountains seem to be one of the most 

 promising fields in the world yet remaining unexplored by the 

 naturalist. They no doubt contain an Alpine flora which might 

 prove allied to that of New Zealand, since the great mountain of 

 Kini Ballu in Borneo has southern forms of plants at its top ; 

 probably there will be found on these high mountains also allies 

 of the New Zealand Parrots of the genus Nestor, one species of 

 which (Nestor notabile) is Alpine in its range. There is & Nestor 



