ol. X. 



igio 



] Barrett, Expedition to Capricovn Group. 183 



camp. The Endeavour blew her sh-en in farewell, the anchor was 

 weighed, and she steamed away for Mast-Head Island, lying 17 

 miles to the westward, on which the second camp was to be formed. 



It was 3 o'clock when the Endeavour arrived off Mast-Head 

 Island, and twilight was falling before No. 2 party and its baggage 

 were landed. We were too late to catch the flood-tide, and the 

 transport of heavy boxes and portmanteaux and the big cans of 

 fresh water across the coral reef was a long and trying task. The 

 jagged edges of the dead coral were so sharp that those who wore 

 shoes or light boots found the soles cut almost to pieces after the 

 work was done. 



Before the tents had been fully pitched and the camp snugged 

 down, a tropical storm burst over the island. Rain fell drench- 

 ingly all through the night, and it was, for most of the party, a 

 long and weary vigil before sleep came to close the eyes of care. 

 But we smoked, and were as cheerful as the circumstances per- 

 mitted ; and the dawn broke so calm and bright that all dis- 

 comforts were forgotten as we emerged from dripping tents into 

 the warm and sparkling sunlight. 



Geological and General. 



From a paper on the mollusca of Mast-Head Reef, by Mr. C. 

 Hedley, F.L.S., published in the Proceedings of the LinncBan 

 Society of New South Wales, 1906, vol. xxxi., part 3, we learned 

 much about our island home. Mr. Hedley, with Dr. R. PuUeine 

 and others, visited Mast-Head Island in October, 1904, for the 

 purpose of studying the marine zoology. The party spent a week 

 on the island, collecting on the reef and dredging in its immediate 

 vicinity, with most important results, some of which are set out 

 in Mr. Hedley' s paper. Attention was devoted to the botany of 

 the island, and a few bird observations were made, but we felt 

 that we were the first to properly investigate the avifauna. ]\Ir. 

 Hedley, in the introduction to his paper, gives a brief account of 

 the history of the Capricorn Group, and an outline of the geo- 

 logical features of Mast-Head Island, from which the following 

 facts are gleaned. 



Professor Jukes visited the Bunker and Capricorn Archi- 

 pelagoes in H.M.S. Fly in 1843, and up to the time of Mr. Hedley's 

 visit, in 1904, no other naturalist had worked among the islands. 

 Mr. Hedley wrote prophetically : — " As this reef (Mast-Head) is 

 the nearest to a trunk railway, and therefore easiest to reach from 

 the large cities of Australia, it will probably be revisited by 

 scientific folk." 



We confined our attention to the Capricorn Group, most of the 

 islands being visited by members of either No. i or No. 2 

 party, and were able to gain a fairly complete record of the avi- 

 fauna of the archipelago. The Capricorn Islands are grouped 

 about the tropic from which they take their name. Mast-Head 

 Island, the most western and nearest to the Queensland coast 

 "of a chain of reefs extending for 54 miles from North Reef to 



