248 KEELING ISLAND. 



is indeed infinite. Chamisso has described* the 

 natural history of a lagoon-island in the Radack 

 Archipelago, and it is remarkable how closely its 

 inhabitants, in number and kind, resemble those of 

 Keeling Island. There is one lizard and two wa- 

 ders, namely, a snipe and curlew. Of plants there 

 are nineteen species, including a fern ; and some 

 of these are the same with those growing here, 

 though on a spot so immensely remote, and in a 

 different ocean. 



The long strips of land, forming the linear isl- 

 ets, have been raised only to that height to which 

 the surf can throw fragments of coral, and the wind 

 heap up calcareous sand. The solid flat of coral 

 rock on the outside, by its breadth, breaks the first 

 violence of the waves, which otherwise, in a day, 

 would sweep away these islets and all their pro- 

 ductions. The ocean and the land seem here strug- 

 gling for mastery : although terra firma has obtain- 

 ed a footing, the denizens of the water think their 

 claim at least equally good. In every part one 

 meets hermit-crabs of more than one species,t car- 

 lying on their backs the shells which they have sto- 

 len from the neighbouring beach. Overhead, nu- 

 merous gannets, frigate-birds, and teras, rest on the 

 trees; and the wood, from the many nests and 

 from the smell of the atmosphere, might be called 

 a sea-rookery. The gannets, sitting on their i-ude 

 nests, gaze at one with a stupid yet angry aii*. 

 The noddies, as their name expresses, are silly lit- 

 tle creatures. But there is one charming bird : it 



* Kotzebue's First Voyage, vol. iii., p. 222. 



t The large claws or pincers of some of these crabs are most 

 beautifully adapted, when drawn back, to form an operculum to 

 the shell, nearly as perfect as the proper one originally belonging 

 to the molluscous animal. I was assured, and, as far as my ob- 

 servation went, I found it so, that certain species of the hermit- 

 crabs always use certain species of shells. 



