66 FERNANDO NORONIIA. 



small round holes. This band is referred to by M'Cormick as 

 the work of coral insects ; there are no corals at all about the 

 rocks, except in deep water. 



Above the band of Lithothamnion is a band of dark red 

 staining on the rocks, caused by an encrusting alga {Hi7de?i- 

 brandtia expansa), and from the region of the tide mark depends 

 a filamentous brown seaweed {C/ionospora atlantica). The 

 green weed [Caulerpa clavifera), of which the noddies build 

 their nests, grows in from two to twenty fathoms about the 

 rocks. 



Of the whole of the eleven species of non-microscopic algce 

 belonging to the rocks, two are peculiar, and the remainder are 

 known to occur at widely different localities, at the Cape of 

 Good Hope, east coast of Australia, Venezuela, etc.* 



I went out for a second night's fishing. The fish for some 

 reason did not bite so well as before, having possibly, like the 

 birds, profited by experience ; but the men in one of the cutters 

 alongside us kept up a succession of songs with hearty 

 choruses, and with the aid of rum and beer and the moon- 

 light, and an occasional bite, the time soon passed away until 

 midnight, when our boat returned to the ship with a party 

 which had been stationed on the rocks to observe stars for 

 determination of longitude. 



Accounts of St Paul's Rocks are to be found in C. Darwin, "Journal 

 of Researches," 2 Ed, p. 8. "Volcanic Islands." Smith and Elder, 

 London, 1844, pp. 31, 32. Fitzroy, "Voyage of 'Adventure' and 

 'Beagle.'" Ross, "Voyage to the Antarctic and Southern Regions," 

 Vol. I., pp. 14-18; with extracts from the Journal of Mr. M'Cormick, 

 Surgeon to the '' Erebus." 



Island of Fernando Noronha, September 1st and 2nd, 

 1873. — The ship reached the island of Fernando Noronha 

 on September ist. The island is in lat. 3^ 50' S., and is about 

 200 miles distant from Cape San Roque, the nearest point 

 of South America. The main Island of Fernando Noronha 

 is about four miles in length, and nowhere more than four and 

 a half broad, and the length of the group formed by it and its 

 outliers is seven geographical miles. The main island is long 

 and narrow, and stretches about N.E. and S.W. 



At the eastern extremity is a series of islets known as 

 Platform Island, St. Michael's Mount, Booby Island, Egg 

 Island, and Rat Island. On the southern side of the main 

 island are several outlying rocks, one of which, called Las 

 Clochers, or Grand Pere, appears as a tall pinnacle with a 

 rounded mass of rock balanced on its summit. 



* Prof. G. Dickie, " Algae collected at St. Paul's Rocks." Linn. Jour. 

 Botany, Vol. XIV., p. 311. 



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