THE ISLANDS OF THE BAY OF BENGAL. 117 



At daylight of the 25th we weighed anchor and ran south 

 to the Little Coco, where we anchored again early. This island 

 is a miniature of the other, some two and a half miles long and 

 nearly a mile broad. The same exquisitely white beach, the 

 same belt of cocoanut trees, but more continuous and some- 

 what broader than in the Great Coco, the same low-wooded 

 mounds, but with a slightly denser undergrowth more mingled 

 with canes, whose thorny whiplike shoots at times sadly 

 impeded progress, and the same dry, treeless hollows densely 

 clothed with coarse grass, which in the monsoon are doubtless 

 swamps. Here, as yesterday, not a trace of fresh water was to 

 be discovered, although we had some six parties out, one of whom 

 walked entirely round the island, while the rest crossed and 

 recrossed it in a score of different places. I myself made four 

 separate traverses working by the compass, (for the jungle was 

 thick,) as nearly as I could judge, equidistant from each other 

 and from the two ends of the islaud. No place could have 

 been more thoroughly worked, yet in addition to the species 

 noticed yesterday, all of which were again shot to-day, the only 

 birds obtained or seen were a Paradise Flycatcher {Tcliitrea 

 paradAsi), Raffles' Brown Flycatcher (A. latirostris) , Tytler's 

 Tree-stare (Calornis Tylleri), that curious pachycephalia 

 Shrike, Boie's Grey Thick-head ( Hylocharis philomela — Tephro- 

 dornis grisola, Blyth,) the Andaman Bush-thrush (G. albo- 

 gularis), the Nicobar White-eyed Tit (Z. nicobariensis), 

 the Malayan Koel (E. malayensis), and a Whimbrel. One 

 White-bellied Sea-eagle was seen, and so I believe, though I 

 forgot to note it at the time, was one yesterday. 



The fine coral beach of the western side of the island was 

 strewn with bunches of the most lovely snow-white sea-weed- 

 looking zoophyte ? (even the Philosopher who knows everything 

 in this line, almost, could not tell me what it was). Tiny 

 leaves, like the leaflets of a maiden hair fern, joined on one 

 beyond the other, in long strings, fifty of which grew apparently 

 from one root, and white to a degree that shamed even the 

 exquisite whiteness of the surf-pounded coral. It was perfectly 

 dry, and very light, but without the smallest sign of wrinkling or 

 withering, and seemed mainly composed of lime in a spongy 

 form. Only on this island did we meet with it, and nowhere 

 here, except on the western face that bears the brunt of the 

 monsoon. 



I lay down, after gathering a basket full of this beautiful 

 mystery, under the shade of a close cluster of young cocoanut 

 palms; a cool soft breeze was creeping up from the sea and 



