THE AUSTRALIAN GREAT BARRIER REEF. 113 



from Cairns, is a much-frequented central station for tlie collection and curing of all of the most 

 valuable commercial species. A few days' encampment sufficed to supply the author with an 

 extensive representative series of these esculent Holothuridas, since contributed to the National 

 Museum, and with a comprehensive collection of Madreporaria. The corals, in their general 

 features, corresponded so essentially, although on a less luxuriant scale, with those of Rocky 

 Island, dealt with a little later, that special notice of them at this point may be dispensed 

 with. 



A little north of the Trinity Opening, the outer margin of the Barrier approaches to within a 

 little less than thirty miles from the mainland. The same near approximation to the coast is 

 maintained for the next two hundred miles, at which point, about latitude 14° S., in association 

 with the promontory of Cape Melville, its nearest approach, to within a distance of only twelve 

 miles from the mainland, is found. This area includes some of the most prolific Beche-de-mer 

 fishing grounds in the Barrier district, which are extensively worked from the most northern 

 mainland port of Cooktown. Low reefs and islets of purely coral formation constitute the 

 dominant feature of the fishing grounds south of Cooktown and Cape Bedford. North of this 

 point, however, there are a good many scattered islets of granite, or other primitive rock 

 formation, which attain to a considerable height. Lizard Island, a little over twenty miles off 

 the mainland coast, and about forty-five miles north of Cooktown, is one of the most con- 

 spicuous. It is composed of granite, and, rising to a height of 1,167 f^st- is a useful beacon 

 for the navigation of the mazes of the reefs. The two islands of North and South Direction, 

 in the vicinity of the Lizard, are of the respective heights of 610 and 567 feet. Rocky 

 Island, some ten miles due south of the Lizard, is about 200 feet high, and is associated 

 with three or four outlying islets of similar granitic formation. 



Rocky Island, above mentioned, and Low Woody Island, of coral formation, about ten 

 miles farther south, are stations in whose vicinity the author obtained the most remarkably 

 luxuriant photographic reef-views reproduced in this volume. These two islands constituted 

 convenient centres for the acquisition of some of the most varied collections of Madreporaria 

 derived from the Barrier district. No fewer than twenty-four species of the genus Madrepora 

 alone were obtained from the Rocky Island reefs, and in addition to these a host of other varieties 

 whose identification awaits accomplishment. The names of the species of the genus Madrepora 

 which have been carefully worked out by Mr. Brook, are included in the following chapter 

 on corals and allied organisms. The prolific character of the coral-growths on the Low Woody 

 Island reefs is well exemplified by the Photo-mezzotype Plates, numbering XIII. to XVII. 

 inclusive, whose descriptive details are embodied in pages 23 to 27 of Chapter I. The 

 Lark Passage reef-view represented by Plate XII. is also within easy sailing distance of Low 

 Woody Island, and was visited the same excursion. 



All the illustrations enumerated assist to demonstrate the existence within this area of the 



