44 THE SEYCHELLES - ISLANDS OF THE GIANT PALMS 



tified by the Dana Expedition of 1928 — 30 — which he between the 

 Seychelles and India. 



Similar considerations apply to the flora. Forty per cent, of the species 

 are endemic, but in spite of the luxuriance of the vegetation their total 

 number is small. Doubtless the hea\^ denudation already referred to 

 has had something to do with this, so that onlv species which were excep- 

 tionally numerous or well equipped in the relentless struggle for existence 

 have managed to survive.. 



It will be understood from what has been said that we looked forward 

 eagerly to visiting the Seychelles when, late one afternoon at the end of 

 March 1951, we entered the harbour of the main island of Mahe to fill 

 up with oil. Our hopes of finding a distinctive flora and fauna and scenery 

 unlike any other were certainly not disappointed. 



During the two-day stay on Mahe the scientists and national-service 

 laboratory assistants made some extremely strenuous collecting excursions 

 in rugged mountain country, and in an oppressive hot-house atmosphere. 

 The object of these as of other excursions was to find animals (and in 

 a lesser degree plants) of outstanding interest, either because they were 

 little known or would provide comparative material for museum scientists 

 at home, or because they were suitable for exhibition in our zoological 

 museums, where — in natural surroundings when possible — they would 

 help to illustrate the variety of Nature. 



Our collecting in the Seychelles had the added interest that a number 

 of the endemic species are becoming increasingly rare; indeed, a few birds 

 and amphibians seem in the last 100 years to have been exterminated. This 

 sad fact is due partly to environmental changes — notably the felling of 

 the tropical rain forest • — and partly to the competition for food forced 

 on the native fauna by the introduction of voracious animals such as the 

 tenrec (Centetes) of Madagascar, the black rat, and various other adap- 

 table and aggressive animals. 



Some of the scientists of the Dana, which visited the Seychelles on her 

 world voyage in 1929, had gone on a collecting expedition on the Mamelle 

 Estate, a large plantation south of Victoria, the capital, on Mahe island. 

 Here they had found some of the extremely primitive caecilians, amphi- 

 bians with a worm-hke life history and appearance except for their jaws 

 and weakly developed eyes. Wishing to emulate our predecessors, we man- 

 aged after a certain amount of haggling to hire a lorry to take us there at 

 a reasonable charge. The proprietor of the estate, a Swiss named Leyte, 

 proved to be an interesting character. He had lived on the islands for a 



