140 PERCY SLADEN TRUST EXPEDITION. 
lands, we had certainly expected to find a considerably greater variety of plants. 
Actually we catalogued 92 species as against 85 at Ile du Coin, Peros, the increase 
being mainly due to rather more plants of cultivation. The only new group of trees 
were the vacoa (Pandanus), of which, though formerly very widespread, there were left 
only two clumps. The badamier (Zerminalia Catappa), with its almond-like nuts, was 
certainly indigenous, whereas it has possibly been introduced into the Chagos. Finally, 
the gayac (Afzelia) was the only absentee that our lists show among the indigenous 
trees of the Chagos. 
The animals of the land so largely depend, either directly or indirectly, upon the 
plants, that their general character follows that of the flora, and so they scarcely differ 
from those found in the Chagos. Some of the land, which seemed to have been at some 
time or other a breeding-ground for birds, gave a few new beetles, and the large 
Hernandea peltata trees had some new Hymenoptera. The freshwater pool behind the 
settlement gave four new insects, while it also contained dragon-fly larvee. In it were 
found also a few Ostracods, but there did not seem to be any of the Protozoa and 
Rotifers that might be expected. There was only one land-molluse, while even in the 
most distant of the Pacific islands one generally finds several species. Molluscs were 
similarly rare in all the coral-islands we visited. Probably they seldom cross wide stretches 
of sea except by human agency, and these islands have become inhabited only quite 
recently. Another explanation might be that the Madagascan and African shore-forms 
that can live on the plants of these coral-islands are scarce and few in species; but 
although we are not acquainted with their molluscan faunas, this scarcely seems probable. 
Of land-crustaceans, the robber-crab (Birgus latro) does not occur west of the Chagos, 
but the other forms are the same. The vertebrates, too, are the same, with the addition of 
an introduced partridge. There were also two males of the tortoise (Testudo elephantina), 
which had been brought from the Seychelles many years before; they are sluggish — 
animals, living on succulent plants and roots, hiding themselves in the densest bush by 
day and coming out to feed at dusk. 
We weighed anchor at dawn on Monday, Sept. 25, and steered a straight course to 
a point halfway between Farquhar and Cape Amber, the north point of Madagascar. 
Soundings were taken at intervals, of which one, at 1650 fathoms, in spite of no 
bottom-sample being obtained, was interesting, as the general depth was over 2000 
fathoms. Serial temperatures down to 400 fathoms were also recorded, the most rapid 
fall taking place between the surface and 50 fathoms in the more northern observations, 
and between 50 and 100 fathoms in the southern. The lowest bottom-temperature was 
33°9° at 2438 fathoms, on a bottom of globigerina-ooze *. On Wednesday, being about 
12 miles south by east of Farquhar, we took a series of tow-nettings: firstly, a series of 
nets on one wire from the surface to 800 fathoms; then our large net, which had not 
been used since its mishap off Mauritius, drawn vertically from 1000 fathoms to the 
surface, followed up by six hauls of the Fowler vertical closing net at various depths 
down to 1000 fathoms. Unfortunately, as the day wore on, the wind and swell 
* The position of these soundings can be easily followed out on the chart (Plate 1). 
