484 KEELING ISLAND 



In Holman's ^ Travels an account is given, on the authority 

 of Mr. A. S. Keating, who resided twelve months on these 

 islands, of the various seeds and other bodies which have been 

 known to have been washed on shore. " Seeds and plants 

 from Sumatra and Java have been driven up by the surf on 

 the windward side of the islands. Among them have been 

 found the Kimiri, native of Sumatra and the peninsula of 

 Malacca ; the cocoa-nut of Balci, known by its shape and 

 size ; the Dadass, which is planted by the Malays with the 

 pepper-vine, the latter entwining round its trunk, and supporting 

 itself by the prickles on its stem ; the soap-tree ; the castor-oil 

 plant ; trunks of the sago palm ; and various kinds of seeds 

 unknown to the Malays settled on the islands. These are all 

 supposed to have been driven by the N.W. monsoon to the 

 coast of New Holland, and thence to these islands by the S.E. 

 trade- wind. Large masses of Java teak and Yellow wood 

 have also been found, besides immense trees of red and white 

 cedar, and the blue gum-wood of New Holland, in a perfectly 

 sound condition. All the hardy seeds, such as creepers, retain 

 their germinating power, but the softer kinds, among which is 

 the mangostin, are destroyed in the passage. Fishing-canoes, 

 apparently from Java, have at times been washed on shore." 

 It is interesting thus to discover how numerous the seeds are, 

 which, coming from several countries, are drifted over the wide 

 ocean. Professor Henslow tells me, he believes that nearly all 

 the plants which I brought from the.se islands are common 

 littoral species in the East Indian archipelago. From the 

 direction, however, of the winds and currents, it seems scarcely 

 possible that they could have come here in a direct line. If, 

 as suggested with much probability by Mr. Keating, they were 

 first carried towards the coast of New Holland, and thence 

 drifted back together with the productions of that country, the 

 seeds, before germinating, must have travelled between 1800 

 and 2400 miles. 



Chamisso,^ when describing the Radack Archipelago, situated 

 in the western part of the Pacific, states that " the sea brings to 

 these islands the seeds and fruits of many trees, most of which 

 have yet not grown here. The greater part of these seeds 



•* Holman's Travels, vol. iv. p. 378. 

 '■^ Kotzebue's First Voyage, vol. iii. p. 155. 



