THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM MAGAZINE. 



33 



Thatch palm seeds. 



Photo — E. A. Briggs. 



fifty trees, each about forty feet big'ii, 

 have to be ascended during the day by 

 each seeder to secure his quota. The 

 seeds are stripped from the trees upon 

 their stems, and shelled into sacks, each 

 of which holds about two Ijushels. One, 

 one and a half, or e\en two sacksful 

 are then carried upon the collector's 

 back over the roug'hci^t of rough tracks, 

 and down the mountain sides to the 

 water's edge, where they are boated to 

 the seed-sheds for packing. 



THE COTJAL REEF. 



The coral reef on the eastern side of 

 the island is the most southern in the 

 world, and supports an abundance of 

 animal life which one scarcely expects 

 to find south of the tropics. Branch- 

 ing madrepores, coloured with delicate 

 tints, spread their fronds luxui'iantly in 

 the deep pools which are sheltered from 

 the battering effects of the surf, while 

 the hardier brain corals flourish in 

 more exposed zones. Fishes gaily orini- 



mented wdth the Ijrilliant colours and 

 patterns characteristic of those of 

 tropical seas are to be seen everywhere, 

 darting in and out of the coral crevices. 

 Sea-eggs, crabs, and sliell-flsh, together 

 with their myriad other brethren of a 

 coral-reef fauna, flaunt their splendour 

 l)efore the fascinated gaze of the ob- 

 server as they carry on their allotted 

 lives within the precincts of some shel- 

 tered pool. 



Climbing for seeds with a strap around the 

 insteps. 



Phoito — E. R. Waite. 



A long arm, beset with waving spines 

 and projecting from an unsuspected 

 crevice, is the limb of a Brittle-star, 

 with its myriad tube feet, extended to 

 cai)ture the food brought to it by the 

 incoming tide. A sliell, moving across 

 the reef at a pace unusual for so slug- 

 gish an animal as a mollusc, is found to 

 be inhabited by a gorgeous hermit-crab, 

 painted with green, scarlet, and blue, 

 and tells of a tragedy by which the for- 

 mer owner and builder of the shell was 

 evicted and devoured to make room for 

 the new tenant. Sea-eggs are there in 



