AN ISLAND OF WATER 335 



CLASS IV PELAGIC SPECIES WHICH MIGHT 

 COME ASHORE AND BREED 



3 species of petrel 



2 species of shearwaters 



1 species of sea turtle 



It is amusing to follow in imagination the direct 

 possibilities of the first stocking of the island. 



Class I — Plants — Both cocoanuts were living 

 and one already sprouted. They were floating 

 buoyantly, and had apparently only recently been 

 immersed, as there was no hint of algal or barnacle 

 growth. Two of the plants were growing on a 

 floating log, and the third — a long section of 

 coarse creeping grass — was floating by itself. The 

 grass and one of the other plants, which might have 

 developed into a shrubby growth, both sprouted at 

 once when put into soil in a deck garden box. 



Class II — ^Animals capable of establishment and 

 breeding — The fifty-odd individual /terns and 

 boobies of five species, would have found a re- 

 cently emerged island a perfectly satisfactory 

 home, with an abundance of sea-food, and rocks 

 and crevices for their nests and eggs. The dozen 

 kinds of shore fish and crabs which I obtained from 

 floating logs would experience no radical change 

 and find plenty of food in shifting their shelter 

 from logs to rocky shallows along shore. 



Among the most important members of the new 

 fauna would be the dozen flies of presumably both 

 sexes which were on board. Dead and decaying 

 sea creatures would immediately furnish them 



