IN THE COCOS'KEELING ISLANDS. 23 



I examined the chart made Ly Ross in 1825, ten years 

 before Mr. Darwin's visit, but it exhibited no peiceptible 

 difference in the external configuration of the various islets. 

 The soundings in the lagoon, however, showed a greater 

 continuous depth at that time, and I am tohl that his vessel 

 sailed, on her first coming, far up tlie bay, and anchored 

 where now no ship can nearly approach. It is more probable 

 that the explanation of this dead field lies in the supposition 

 that a like phenomenon to that just narrated accompanied the 

 earthquake of 1834. Beyond the boundary affected by the 

 dark water, the coral was unharmed, and growing vigorously 

 in thick bosses, (called " patches " by Mr. Darwin,) composed 

 chiefly of Madrej)ora and PocUhpora, between which were 

 basins of no great diameter, but reaching to a depth of some 

 eight or ten fathoms, w-hich were marvellous natural aquaria 

 planted round with anemones, tesselated in bine and green 

 designs with Fungigs and brain-corals. But why no other 

 species should grow in these deep clear pits, and why the 

 various corals forming the bosses — which are chiefly of 

 Sicliinopora lamelJosa — do not stretch out their arms into 

 and obliterate them, seems difficult to understand. 



In the small boat channel close to the settlement, one of the 

 few poisoned places in which the coral had begun to grow 

 vigorously since 1870, I dislodged with my hand several 

 living bunches from the chalky bottom on which they 

 were growing. Their average diameter across the top was 

 12 inches, and their height from the centre to the tip of 

 the branches 6^ inches. This channel was thoroughly 

 cleaned out down to the white mud on the 20th 3iay, 1878, 

 and as my measurements were made on the 30th January, 

 1S79, tlie a^re of these bunches was under eight and a half 

 months. 



I could not help being struck by the number of brilliantly 

 hued fishes in the deep pools of the lagoon. Banded and 

 spotted Muroenoids (species oi Lsiuranus and Ojnsurus) glided 

 about in snake-like fiishion ; in sea-weed or hydroid-covered 

 crevices motionless Antennarii lay in wait, but it required a 

 sharp eye to distinguish their quaintly adorned and mimicking 

 bodies from the excrescences of their retreat. Other singular 

 denizens of the lagoon are the Crayracions, which look like 



