MEANS OF DISPERSAL. 12/ 



lines at right angles to the direction in which the river's 

 mouth lay, and the screw had to be constantly stopped 

 for fear it should be fouled. Most of the pieces — which 

 did not appear to have been very long in the sea — were of 

 small wood, branches and small stems ; among them, how- 

 ever, were many whole up-rooted trees. As the ship was 

 nearing Dobbo, the port of the Aru Islands, large quan- 

 tities of leaves, fruits, etc., and branches of trees were 

 encountered, drifting about mingled with a floating sea- 

 weed, and off Ke Islands, and also among the Moluccas, 

 similar drifts of land vegetation were met with. The 

 sea-birds, especially terns, Mr. Moseley says, habitually 

 resort to floating logs as resting places, and it is curious 

 to see them in the distance appearing as if standing on 

 the surface of the water, the logs themselves being 

 often invisible.^ Dr. Binney states that he once saw 

 Nantasket beach^ at the mouth of Boston harbour, 

 strewn with logs, " driven from the rivers of Maine by 

 easterly winds of several days' continuance," and he refers 

 also to the frequent stranding of trunks of trees^ frag- 

 ments of wood, seed-vessels, and numerous other objects, 

 some of unascertained origin, and others from the 

 Spanish Main, Cuba, etc., on the shore of Key West, 

 and on the beach of Cape Florida and the shores and 

 islands to the north of it.^ Mr. C. T. Simpson mentions 

 having seen, in sheltered cives on the island of Utilla, 



^ H. N. Moseley, " Notes by a Naturalist on the Challenger;'^ 

 1879, PP- 2>(^1, 432-4- 



^ A. Binney, "Terrestrial air-breathing Mollusks," i. (1851), pp. 

 153, 157. 



