332 BANDA. 



I found the skull of an Opossum (the Woolly Phalanger, 

 Ciiscus) on the mountain. The animal is common in the 

 Banda Group. It occurs also in the Moluccas and elsewhere. 

 Its occurrence on the Banda Islands seems most easily 

 accounted for on the supposition that it escaped from confine- 

 ment, having been brought to the islands at some time by 

 Malay voyagers. Malays seem fond of keeping wild animals 

 in confinement, or taming them. There were several such pet 

 animals about the houses at Dobbo, at the time of our visit. 



At the base of the Banda Volcano, on the shores of the 

 island, a belt of living corals composed of a considerable 

 variety of species is easily accessible at low tide. Of these 

 corals the largest bulk is composed of massive Astneids, of 

 which about ten different forms were collected. A massive 

 Forties is also very abundant. 



One species of " Brain Coral," and an Astnea, form huge 

 masses, often as much as five feet in diameter, which have 

 their bases attached to the bare basaltic rock of the shore. 

 The tops of all of these coral masses are dead and flat and some- 

 what decayed ; but on these dead tops fresh growth is now 

 taking place, showing that slight oscillations of a foot at least 

 have recently taken place in the level of the shore. The tops 

 of the corals have been certainly killed by being left exposed 

 above water. 



Such slight oscillations are to be expected at the base of an 

 active volcano. The present re-growth is due to the corals 

 being now again submerged. The fact that these corals are to 

 be seen growing on the bare rock itself, and not on debris of 

 older corals, shows that the coral growth is very recent. 



The Brain Coral grows in convex, mostly hemispherical, 

 masses ; the Astrcea more in the form of vertically standing 

 cylindrical masses, or masses which may be described as made 

 up of a number of cylinders fused together. The masses of 

 the Astrcea are usually higher than those of the Mceandrina by 

 about a foot, because they are able to grow in shallower water, 

 and they for this reason range also higher up on the beach. 



Many of the masses of this Astrcea in the shallower water 

 are left dry at each low-tide, and appear to suffer no more in 

 consequence than do the common .Sea-anemones of our English 

 coasts, which are so closely allied to them. I have not seen 

 any other species of coral thus growing where it is exposed at 

 low tide. The " Brain Coral " apparently cannot survive ex- 

 posure, and hence the tops of its masses have been killed 

 during the change of depth of the water at about a foot below 

 the height at which those of the Astrcea have perished. 



The common Mushroom Coral, so often to be seen as a 



