PURCHASING SHELLS. 119 



me a large number of nautilus-sliells of enormous size. 

 TTie childi'en were nearly all entirely naked, and the 

 women only wore a sarong, fastened at tlie waist and 

 descending to the knees. This scanty clothing they 

 supplied by coyly folding their arms across their 

 breasts as they approached to sell their shells. Those 

 of the nautilus, they all agreed in saying, did not 

 come from their own shores, but from Rotti ; and a 

 gentleman, who had been along all the neighboring 

 shores, assured me that he had seen the natives there 

 dive for them, in about two fathoms at low tide, and 

 bring them up allve^ and that in this way great num- 

 bers are gathered for food. 



The latter part of the western monsoon, or the 

 changing of the monsoons, was recommended to me 

 as the most favorable time to collect these rare 

 animals. Besides the nautilus, I obtained many 

 species of Pteroceras, Stromhus^ and many beautiful 

 cones and cyprseas. 



The coral rocks on the hills that we crossed con- 

 tained specimens apparently of living species, at a 

 height which I judge was five hundred feet above 

 the level of the sea. I marked the whole in my note- 

 book as merely a coral reef of very recent elevation. 

 Since returning, and comparing this observation with 

 the careful description of that region given by Mr. 

 Jukes,* in his voyage of the Fly, I find he expresses 



* Mr. Jukes remarks, and I believe, most correctly, that "if the term 

 'jura kalk' is applied lithologically to these tertiary rocks, it is to a 

 certain extent applicable, as they have a concretionary and oolitic 

 structure. If, however, it is meant to have a chronological meiming, it 

 is either incorrectly applied, or the formation is incorrectly extended on 

 the map to the neighborhood of Knpang.'' 



