CHAPTER V 



SOUTHERN REGIONS 



In the land of the coelacanth by J. Millot, Professeiir an Museum .\aliunal d'hisioire nuturelle, 

 Diredeur de I'lnslituf de recherche scientifique de Madagascar. 



The Western Indian Ocean, with its many islands of all sizes — Madagascar (really a small 

 continent), the Mascarenes, the Glorieuses, the Comoros, the Aldabra group, the Seychelles and 

 small barely emergent reefs in the north of the Mozambique Channel — is one of the most 

 enthralling for the traveller and scientist. The peculiarity of the animals and plants populating 

 its archipelagos must be due to isolation, which has lasted for hundreds of millions of years on 

 the great Madagascan land. Owing to this, life has taken forms found nowhere else and archaic 

 species which died out in other regions have survived. In this fortunate region the waters yield 

 little to the lands in interest. The recent discovery off the Comoro Islands of the renowned 

 Lalimeria chahimnae has strikingly shown this and put this part of the world — " the land of 

 the coelacanth " — to the forefront in current scientific affairs. After long neglect, there has 

 been a happy revival of oceanographic investigations. Research stations are in full swing at 

 Zanzibar, Lourenco Marques and Durban, while France heads this productive rivalry through 

 the setting up of a fine research centre at Nossi-Be. 



All these groups of zoologists are carrying out careful researches. They are working on 

 whales, the schools of which regularly migrate from north to south; on turtles, from which come 

 tortoise-shell; on oysters, which when cultivated would equal our Whitstables; on molluscs, 

 (burgaux) in great demand for their mother of pearl ; on Murex, the opercula of which when burned 

 give olT a sweet-smelling, cleansing smoke dear to the Arabs, Chinese and Hindus; on brilliantly 

 coloured spiny lobsters; on soft holothurians, " cucumbers " or " sea Priapus ", that crawl 

 over the rocks and are reputed to have aphrodisiac qualities, this ensiu'ing them an unlimited 

 market in China, aiul drawing junks from the Far East to Madagascan coasts to collect them 

 for several thousand years; on sea-urchins with enormous spines; and on coastal and migratory 

 fishes. 



Round-snouted sparids. dorados and sea-breams cruise around the reefs, together with 

 lethrinids, the " captains " of the Indian Ocean, which have a delicious flesh. There are serra- 

 nids, typified by Variola louli (the " yellow crescent ") with a yellow-edged tail contrasting 

 strongly with the red body. In Mauritius this fish is believed to be poisonous and its sale 

 is forbidden, but in the Seychelles and South Africa it is much esteemed. This difference in 



146 Trichogaster leeri. Sumatra. 



A piranha ( Serrasalmus spilileura). Amazon. Pho- 

 tographs V. Six, Aquarium du Zoo d'Anvers. 



