244 KEELING ISLAND. 



there affords a pleasing contrast with the azure 

 sky, so in the lagoon, bands of living coral darken 

 the emerald gj-een water. 



The next morning, after anchoring, I went on 

 shore on Direction Island. The strip of dry land 

 is only a few hundred yards in width ; on the la- 

 goon side there is a white calcareous beach, the 

 radiation from which under this sultry climate was 

 very oppressive ; and on the outer coast, a solid, 

 broad flat of coral-rock served to break the vio- 

 lence of the open sea. Excepting near the lagoon, 

 where there is some sand, the land is entirely com- 

 posed of rounded fragments of coral. In such a 

 loose, dry, stony soil, the climate of the intertropi- 

 cal regions alone could produce a vigorous vegeta- 

 tion. On some of the smaller islets, nothing could 

 be more elegant than the manner in which the young 

 and full-grown cocoa-nut trees, without destroying 

 each other's symmetry, were mingled into one 

 wood. A beach of glittering white sand formed 

 a border to these fairy spots, 



I will now give a sketch of the natural history 

 of these islands, which, from its very paucity, pos- 

 sesses a peculiar interest. The cocoa-nut tree, at 

 the first glance, seems to compose the whole wood ; 

 there are, however, five or six other trees. One of 

 these grows to a very large size, but, from the ex- 

 treme softness of its wood, is useless ; another sort 

 affords excellent timber for ship-building. Be- 

 sides the trees, the number of plants is exceeding- 

 ly limited, and consists of insignificant weeds. In 

 my collection, which includes, I believe, nearly the 

 perfect Flora, there are twenty species, without 

 reckoning a moss, lichen, and fungus. To this 

 number two trees must be added, one of which 

 was not in flower, and the other I only heard of. 

 The latter is a sohtary tree of its kind, and grows 



