THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 141 



AN HOUR ON A CORAL ISLAND.— BY A STUDENT 

 OF LICHENOLOGY. 



By Rev. R. F. M. Wilson. 



{Read before the Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria, \oth 

 December^ 1888.) 



i6th October, 1884. — On board one of the Orient line of 

 steamers on the way to AustraUa. The ship is taking in coals at 

 Diego Garcia, one of the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean, 

 7| degrees south of the line ; and is lying at anchor inside the coral 

 reef, with islands all around. Alongside the ship is a boat which 

 belongs to one of the white men, an Englishman, living on the 

 island. Some of the passengers wish to get on sliore and they 

 are crowding about the gangway. Two of us wish to explore the 

 island botanically. I wish to see what it has in the way of 

 lichens. My companion, a Victorian clergyman and a member 

 of this club, takes a special interest in mosses ; but he does not 

 expect much in that line. We both edge forward through the 

 crowd towards the ladder. At length permission is got to use 

 the boat, and there is a bit of a rush to get in. My companion 

 and I are among the first. I very nearly get a ducking, as a 

 fellow-passenger stumbles into the boat and lays hold of me to 

 steady himself. At that moment I am trying to do the very same 

 thing, and have scarcely got my balance. He makes me lose it 

 altogether, and down we come, but fortunately inside the boat. 

 Well ! after a little confusion we shove off. A motley crew we 

 are : three young Roman Catholic priests, two Presbyterian 

 ministers — no longer young, a rollicking Irishman, who is an inn- 

 keeper in Australia ; one or two wild young Englishmen, with a 

 fowling-piece among them ; two Victorian musicians, and a few 

 others, of whose nationalities and occupations I know nothing. 

 The Irishman takes an oar ; but after catching crabs several times 

 and fouling the oars occasionally, he is deposed, and one of the 

 priests is promoted to his place. The priest is a slight improve- 

 ment — only slight, however. The other oars are in rather better 

 hands ; but the passengers are excited and restless. Fortunately 

 the water is comparatively smooth. When we get about half a 

 a mile from the ship, and see the land so apparently far off, say a 

 mile, and the waves pretty high, I begin to think that, if I had 

 known what an unsailorly and careless lot we were, I would have 

 perhaps — but here we are, and in due course we get safely to 

 land. 



The shore is composed of broken and water-worn pieces of 

 coral of various sorts ; and, where we land, it slopes up to about 

 4 ft, or 5 ft. high. Bushes are growing close to the water's 

 edge, and trees of several kinds rise up beyond them. I leap on 

 shore. As I look round I feel my ignorance very deeply. Not 



