374 NEW GUINEA. 



into which the floating timber was almost everywhere gathered. 

 Amongst them were the usual littoral seeds, those of two 

 species of Pandanus, and of a Puzzle-seed {Xylocarpus), fruits 

 of a Barringtonia and of Ipoma'a pes capra\ 



But besides these fruits of littoral plants, there were seeds 

 of 40 or 50 species of more inland plants. Very small seeds 

 were as abundant as large ones, the surface scum being full of 

 them, so that they could be scooped up in quantities with a 

 fine net. With the seeds occurred one or two flowers, or parts 

 of them. 



I observed an entire absence of leaves, excepting those of 

 the Palm, on the midribs of which some of the pinnae were 

 still present. The leaves evidently drop first to the bottom, 

 whilst vegetable drift is floating from a shore. Thus, as the 

 debris sinks in the sea-water a deposit abounding in leaves, 

 but with few fruits and little or no wood, will be formed near 

 shore, whilst the wood and fruits will sink to the bottom farther 

 off land. 



Much of the wood was floating suspended vertically in the 

 water, and most curiously, logs and short branch pieces thus 

 floating, often occurred in separate groups, apart from the 

 horizontally floating timber. The sunken ends of the wood 

 were not weighted by any attached masses of soil or other load 

 of any kind. Possibly the water penetrates certain kinds of 

 wood more easily in one direction with regard to its growth 

 than the other. Hence one end becomes water-logged before 

 the other; I could arrive at no other explanation of the 

 circumstance. 



It is evident that a wide area of the sea off the mouth of the 

 Ambernoh River is thus constantly covered with drift-wood, 

 for the floating wood is inhabited by various animals, which 

 seem to belong to it, as it were. The fruits and wood were 

 covered with the eggs of a Gasteropod Mollusc, and with a 

 Hydroid, and the interstices were filled with Radiolarians 

 washed into them and gathered in masses, just as Diatoms in 

 the Antarctic seas are gathered together in the honeycombed 

 ice. Two species of Crabs inhabit the logs in abundance, and 

 a small Dendroavie Planarian swarms all over the drift matter 

 and on the living crabs also. A Lepas was common on the 

 1 ogs. 



Enormous quantities of small fish swarmed under the drift- 

 wood, and troops of Dolphins {Coryphcena) and small Sharks 

 {Carcharias), three or four feet long, were seen feeding on 

 them, dashing in amongst the logs, splashing the water, and 

 showing above the surface, as they darted on their prey. The 

 older wood was bored by a PhoLts. 



