170 CARNEGIE INSTITUTION OF WASHINGTON. 



Kestrel, thus forwarding greatly the success of the expedition. We also 

 enjoyed the privilege of being the guests of Mr. Thomas Arnold 

 Williams, of Darnley Island, and of John Stewart Bruce, j. p., the well- 

 known anthropologist and teacher of Murray Island, whose advice and 

 generously offered aid was invaluable to us upon many occasions, 

 placing at our service all the fruits of his more than twenty years' experi- 

 ence upon these remote and interesting islands. To the Rev. F. W. 

 Walker, managing director of the Papuan Industries, a philanthropic 

 association devoted to teaching the natives useful arts and trades, 

 members of the expedition are indebted for a profitable and happy 

 week upon Badu Island. 



Early in September the Director, accompanied by Messrs. Hubert 

 Lyman Clark, E. Newton Harvey, Frank A. Potts, David H. Tennent, 

 E. M. Grosse, of Sydney, the artist to the expedition, and our engineer, 

 Mr. John Mills, arrived at Thursday Island, at the northern extremity 

 of Cape York, Queensland. We had hoped to estabhsh a laboratory 

 at Thursday Island, but it soon became apparent that the strong 

 currents had covered the reef-flats with silt, killing most of the corals 

 and echinoderms. 



Fortunately, Mr. Charles Hedley, of Sydney, had told us of the clear, 

 blue water and rich coral reefs of the Murray Islands, within 6 miles 

 of the outer line of the Great Barrier Reef and 120 miles ENE. of Thurs- 

 day Island. Generously aided and advised by the Honorable W. M. 

 Lee-Bryce and b}- Messrs. Arthur and Hockings, the expedition reached 

 Darnley Island in the schooners Kestrel and Venture, where we were 

 hospitably entertained by Mr. T. Arnold Williams. Finally, on 

 September 20, we reached Maer Island, of the Murray Islands, and 

 were permitted to make use of the concrete courthouse and the palm- 

 thatched ''jail" for laboratory purposes, Messrs. W. M. Lee-Bryce and 

 John Stewart Bruce putting at our disposal these quarters, which made 

 an ideal tropical laboratory. 



At Murray Island the expedition achieved a signal success. The 

 region is one of rich coral reefs, bearing a varied molluscan and echino- 

 derm fauna well suited to provide material for the experimental studies 

 we purposed to conduct. The reef-flat on the southeastern side of 

 Maer Island is about 2,000 feet wide and is covered by water about 18 

 inches deep at low tide, forming a wide, shallow marine lake, dammed 

 on the seaward edge by the lithothamnion ridge of the reef. The 

 fauna of this tidal lake is one of the richest in the tropical world, and 

 Dr. Hubert Lyman Clark was enabled to collect 151 species of echino- 

 derms in shallow water along the shores of Maer Island; he also found 

 26 others at Badu and at Thursday Island; and at least 45 of these are 

 new to science. Thus, as a result of the studies of Dr. Clark and of those 

 who preceded him, 250 species are now known from the Torres Straits 

 region. His collection is a notable addition to that of the Museum of 



