724 DEBOYNE GROUP. 



the two predominant winds are the south-east and the south-west monsoons, the latter 

 corresponding with the inclement season which in fact begins to set in towards the 

 end of January. The numerous islets surrounding the Conflict Lagoon, which is upwards 

 of 20 miles in length, are uninhabited, the natives merely using this as a half-way 

 house on their long canoe voyages. At the time of my visit, as I have said, the 

 south-west squalls commenced and, increasing in severity, my two anchors persisted in 

 dragging, so that on the fifth day there was no other course open to us than to get 

 clear of the lagoon which had become a veritable trap, if we wished to avoid the 

 ignominious piling up of our craft on the reef. After being foiled in several attempts 

 we emerged successfully through a narrow passage nearly opposite to the one by which 

 we had entered the lagoon. I think it must have been blowing quite half-a-gale and 

 the sea was running high, but the Mizpah's thin boards held together and we spent 

 the night tacking and drifting in the usual manner. On the following day although 

 the wind had moderated I had again lost my bearings and was at my wits' end to 

 know which course to set in this reef-bound sea, when we espied another cutter two 

 or three miles ahead and decided to follow her lead. In due course our unconscious 

 pilot disappeared through a passage in a distant reef and I headed straight for this 

 point to the best of my belief, but on arrival was confronted by a continuous reef 

 which seemed to stretch on either hand as far as the eye could reach from the mast- 

 head. By following up the reef, though labouring under total misapprehension as to 

 the identity of the various islands around us, we suddenly found ourselves in a wide 

 passage which, as we subsequently ascertained, led us into the magnificent lagoon of 

 the Deboyne Group, at the northern end of which stands the high crescentic island 

 of Panaieti, overshadowed by the loftier crest of Misima to the north-east. 



Inside the Deboyne Lagoon there is another hilly island called Panapompom, off 

 which we anchored and set about purchasing food, our stores having run out, but only 

 bread-fruit was procurable. The natives of Panaieti are in the habit of crossing over 

 to the south-east side of Panapompom in order to cultivate gardens of yams, sweet- 

 potatoes, pumpkins and bananas, which however do not form a conspicuous feature in 

 the scenery as they do in the Engineer Group and other more westerly islands. 



While at anchor in the lagoon I put down a small dredge, taking it out in the 

 dinghy for some distance, then sinking it and hauling in with the hand-winch on 

 board the cutter. I was rewarded for my pains by finding in the sand with which 

 the dredge became filled a species of lancelet {Amphioxus) belonging to the genus 

 Asymmetron, which had only been discovered a few years previously by Prof. E. A. 

 Andrews 1 at Bimini in the Bahamas. 



The family of the Branchiostomidae, which includes all the known species of the 

 lancelet, occupies such a peculiarly central position in the system of animal life, and 

 its distribution is so local, that it is always satisfactory to ascertain a new fact 

 concerning either its organisation or its range 2 . I was not a little surprised to find 



1 Andrews, E. A., "An Undescribed Acraniate : Asymmetron lucayanum." Stud. Johns Hopkins Univ., 

 v., pp. 213—247, 1893. 



2 Willey, A., "Zoological Observations in the South Pacific." Quart. J. Micr. Sc, Vol. 39, p. 219, 1897. 

 Amphioxus belcheri has its southern limit in Moreton Bay, Queensland, and its northern in Japan. It has been 



