REMARKABLE WELL 207 



phere being delightfully bright and clear. There are 

 bushes and herbage on nearly all of them, and there used 

 to be wallaby on some of the largest, and seals in the 

 lagoons ; but these are nearly, or quite exterminated, and 

 I saw none in 1889 at the time of my visit. 



The islands have been the scenes of many wrecks ; and 

 it is said that some castaway Dutchman lived on Middle 

 Island for several months some hundred and fifty years 

 ago. Fishermen and others now use the islands a good 

 deal ; and a class of poor persons come hither in boats in 

 search of wreckage, of which considerable quantities are 

 often washed in from the westward. Whence this wreck- 

 age comes it is difficult to say ; but I have seen some which 

 appeared to have floated all the way from India, and to 

 have been in the water months, and perhaps years. Most 

 of the islands on which I landed showed signs of many 

 visitors having been there previously. On one was a large 

 quantity of broken glass, which seemed to have been there 

 a very long time. 



In many places the bottom of the sea is plainly dis- 

 cernible through the clear water, revealing the base of the 

 barrier reef, both inside and outside the lagoon. The 

 bottom is a lightish grey sandy mud ; and the beautiful 

 formation of the coral cannot fail to rivet the observer's 

 attention. The base of the reef is composed of tree-like 

 branched masses ; and above the coral assumes the shape 

 of huge fans of striated pattern, some of the masses being 

 twenty, and occasionally perhaps thirty feet wide. The 

 fans overlap each other in a rather curious way, with deep 

 interstices between in which many singular creatures find 

 a lurking place, among them a huge crab, with a stretch 

 of claw-like leg of at least six feet. One of these crabs, 

 which I captured, weighed more than twenty pounds. Of 

 course these very large ones are the finest specimens. 

 They were of many different sizes, and appeared to be of 

 the Oxyrhyncha genus or family. There were also other 

 crabs, smaller and brighter coloured, violet and red, and 

 one a bright yellow. 



Sea-birds are abundant on these islands; insomuch 



