4 PERCY SLADEN TRUST EXPEDITION 



extent, the other 27 islands, all of which are of granite, lying close together on its 

 centre. Fryer's account of these two islands is appended to this article. 



On August 22, Fryer left the Seychelles, after a two days' visit to us in Silhouette, 

 on the brig " Charlotte," Capt. Parcou, for Astove, Cosmoledo, Assumption and Aldabra. 

 A short report on the first three islands, at each of which he had a few days' stay, 

 appeared in Nature of Dec. 17, 1908. He reached the Aldabra group on Sept. 13, 

 and remained on those islands until Jan. 24, 1909. M. d'Emmerez de Charmoy, the 

 enlightened owner, had given orders that every facility should be placed at Fryer's 

 disposal and he was provided with a pirogue and six men while houses were built for 

 him in four situations so that he might examine the whole of the group. His work 

 during this, the summer season at Aldabra, must have been, as we know by our own 

 experience elsewhere, arduous in the extreme on an island of jagged coral, covered 

 with hard wooded Pemphis acidula, through which all paths had to be cut, and 

 having in the centre a stinking mangrove swamp literally alive with mosquitoes. 

 Even native labour dislikes going to Aldabra, which has an evil reputation second to 

 none in the world. Of course its unhealthiness and unpleasantness can undoubtedly 

 be to some degree cured by cultivation, etc., but to the naturalist the greater wildness 

 has peculiar charms. Mr Fryer's discovery that Aldabra is an elevated coral reef and 

 that it has much phosphatised and peculiar rock with fossil vertebrate remains is of 

 great importance. His description will form a separate report. On his return Fryer 

 revisited Assumption and Cosmoledo, reaching Victoria on Feb. 12 and England on 

 March 28. We would pay a warm mead of praise to Mr Fryer's energy and pluck 

 in carrying on his work in Aldabra in spite of its many unpleasantnesses and his own 

 consequent ill-health. 



Meantime Scott and I left in the government tug "Alexandra " on July 24 for 

 Silhouette, a most precipitous island 2,467 feet high, lying 13 miles N.W. of Mahe. 

 It belongs to the Dauban family, of whom M. Edouard Dauban and his wife live on 

 the island ; for the kindness and hospitality of this charming family we desire to 

 express our warmest thanks. The island itself is about 12 square miles in size, but 

 within this compass it includes 10 peaks of over 1,500 feet, all of which are still 

 clothed with indigenous jungle, the fauna and flora of which we desired to compare 

 with those of Mahe". Rather more than half the island attains a greater elevation 

 than 1,000 feet. Further, it seemed advisable to select a smaller island, the better to 

 investigate the causes which have been responsible for the cutting up of the granite 

 masses of the Seychelles into mountains and valleys, and to consider how far these 

 could have been responsible for cutting granite land down to sea level. 



At first we camped at Mon Plaisir on the west side of Morne Pot-a-eau, the 

 central peak of Silhouette, at about 1,600 feet, absolutely in the indigenous jungle. For 

 days together it was an area of mist, but Scott remained here for a month, every day 

 obtaining new insects. Photography was impossible as well as plant drying so that 

 I moved with a few things to the north and leeward and hence dry side of the same 

 hills. Here is an open space, with a marsh known as the Mare aux Cochons, I had a 

 second house at about 1,300 feet. It was drier but photographic negatives and plants 



