DESCRIPTION OF THE EXPEDITION, 33 
bird, which breeds there inimmense numbers. As they did not return, the Administrator, 
on Feb. 11, sent off a second boat with 8 men, and himself sailed thither on Feb. 20. 
He found traces of the first boat, but none of the second, and it must be presumed that 
both were lost, with all hands, in the heavy westerly weather which occurred at that 
time. Both were large boats, which could scarcely have been swamped, so that it must 
be concluded that they were either broken up on the submerged Victory bank, 10 miles to 
the south, or, more probably, unable to make head against the strong easterly currents 
between the atolls. 
The establishments on all these oil-islands are very similar and will be treated of 
later on. The Salomon Islands differ little from the rest, save perhaps in their greater 
richness and in having returned in places to some degree of wild jungle. The islands 
were noted originally for their ‘‘ gayac’’-trees (Afzelia bijuga), which seem to have been 
found nowhere else in the Chagos. These trees, admirably adapted to the calcareous 
soil, appear to have ‘attained an immense size, often 3-4 feet in diameter at 6 feet above 
the ground, being supported in the comparatively shallow soil by massive buttresses *. 
The largest living trees now exist on Tle Fouquet, but the stumps of the trees which have 
been cut down for boat-building and export—the wood being a beautiful rich red and taking 
a high polish—are numerous in Boddam as well. ‘The “ bois blanc” (Hernandia peltata) 
likewise buttressed, contended with the gayac, while a grove of immense “ takamaka’ 
(Calophyllum Inophyllum) have given their name to the island on which we camped. The 
three trees differ in that the “ gayac” prefers the hard sandy land in the centre of the 
islands and is killed by the near approach of the sea, while the “bois blanc” lives 
best in a mixture of rock and sand and is not killed, though it becomes stunted, if 
bathed in sea-water; and the “ takamaka,” trailing its great roots over the ground, loves 
to cling round rocks among which the sea can freely percolate. In past time, indeed, 
they formed probably the most characteristic plants in three zones extending inland 
parallel to the coast. Of course most of the large trees had long ago been cut down, 
but the shrubs and herbaceous plants served by their appearance to divide up the islands 
into regions corresponding to the nature of the subsoil—rocky, loose sand, or, finally, 
hard sandstone or “ tuffe.’”’ Coconuts flourish best on the coral-rock, and often have an 
extraordinary undergrowth of immense “langue de boeuf” (Asplenium) and other ferns. 
They grow but slowly on the tuffe, which is generally rather open land with a small 
rush (“ herbe mosambique”) and a few succulents. 
The land-animals of Salomon are few in numbers, rats being the only mammals. The 
most interesting animal is the “sipaille”’ (Birgus latro), the well-known coconut- or 
robber-crab (fig. 13). It abounds in Takamaka, and is caught by baiting places with 
pooniac (the pressed remains of the coconut from the oil-mills) or roasted coconut. It lives 
’ 
’ 
* Horsburgh refers to these trees in the following terms :—‘ If a judgment may be formed from the soil and 
productions these islands,” Capt. Blair remarks, ‘may be supposed much older than any we have visited; the soil 
is tolerable and much deeper than at Diego Garcia or Peros Banhos, consequently the trees take much deeper root 
and grow to a greater size. One sort, peculiar to these islands, which appears to be very good timber, grows to 
the height of 130 feet, many very straight, some 4 feet in diameter, and 40 feet from the ground to the branches. 
The young timber is white, but the old decayed trees are of a deep chocolate-colour, and the timber perfectly sound.” 
SECOND SERIES.—ZOOLOGY, VOL. XII. 6 
