124 bulletin: museum of compakattve zoology. 



yellowish white Holothurians, which it is almost impossible to dis- 

 tinguish from coral sand, and a species of Calappa, of which the mark- 

 ings on the carapace can scarcely be distinguished from the mottled 

 yellow coral sand in which they are partially buried. 



The coloring of the coral masses and patches found on the east face 

 of Turtle Reef is most brilliant. Heliopora, huge Alcyonaria of mauy 

 tints, the pinkish violet Madrepores, large clusters of brown Millepora and 

 Pocillopora, masses of variegated sponges, the brilliantly colored gills of 

 the huge Tridacnas, and the disks of numerous Actinia? give to the coral 

 patches a brilliancy of color which I have not seen on the most splen- 

 didly colored of the West Indian coral reefs. 



The preponderance of sponges and Alcyonariaus, in place of Gor- 

 gonians, is one of the most striking characteristics of the Great Barrier 

 Eeef of Australia. 



On Dunk Island beach, we found the Balanoglossus described by 

 Hill in Vol. X., Trans. Lin. Soc. of N. S. W., November, 1894. 

 . I may mention here the peculiar patchwork formed by the tracks of 

 a crab over the upper part of the coral sand beach, to the north of the 

 northern breakwater at Townsville. A space fully ninety by twenty 

 feet was completely carpeted with a diagonal pattern of lines of pellets 

 thrown out of the burrows, which gave it very much the appearance 

 of the diagonal tracery so characteristic of Arabic designs, only quite 

 irregular, of course. Unfortunately, the photograph taken of this net- 

 work of tracks was imperfect. 



Jack and Etheridge, in their Geology and Palaeontology of Queensland 

 (pp. 6 1 4-6 84), 1 give all the references to the literature regarding the 

 recent elevation of the coast, as shown by the raised beaches occurring 

 at so many points of the coast. Maitland 2 also speaks of the New Guinea 

 terraces (raised beaches ?) reaching to a height of 2,000 feet. They 

 very probably represent, as they do in Cuba, elevations which have taken 

 place in different periods. 



Speaking of the upper cretaceous formation of Queensland, Jack says 

 (p. 511) : "The desert sandstone formation . . . must at one time have 

 covered at least three quarters of the colony of Queensland, — although 

 its denuded remains now occupy less than one twentieth of the area over 



1 It may be that on Raine Islet we also have traces of such an elevated beach. 

 See Rattray, Proc. Geol. Soc. London, 18G9, Vol. XXV. p. 30.3, who, speaking of 

 Raine Islet, says, "It rises ten feet above high-water mark, and consists of hard, 

 compact brecciated conglomerate." 



2 Geological Observations in British New Guinea in 1891. 



