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Ch. XXXIX.] 



ON FLOATING ISLANDS. 



3G3 



China by tlie eastern passage lie fell in^ among tlie Moluccas 

 witli several small floating islands of this kind^ covered with 

 mangrove-trees interwoven with underwood. The trees and 

 shrubs retained their verdure^ receiving nourishment from a 

 stratum of soil which formed a white beach round the margin 

 of each raft, where it was exposed to the washing of the waves 

 and the rays of the sun. The occurrence of soil in such situa- 

 tions may easily be explained ; for all the natural bridges of 

 timber which occasionally connect the islands of the Ganges 

 Mississippi, and other rivers, with their banks, are exposed 

 to floods of water, densely charged with sediment. 



The late Admiral W. H. Smyth informed me, that, when 

 cruising in the Cornwallis amidst the Philippine Islands, he 



moi 



L 



typhoons, floating masses of wood, with trees growing upon 

 them ; the ships have sometimes been in imminent peril. 



firma 



fact, they were in rapid motion. 



It is highly interesting to trace, in imagination, the effects 



from 



to some archipelago, raised from the deep by the operations 

 of the volcano and the earthquake. If a 



storm 



many 



succeed in gaining, by flight, some island of the newly-formed 

 ;TOup, while the seeds and berries of herbs and shrubs, which 

 fall into the waves, may be thrown upon the strand. But if 

 the surface of the deep be calm, aud the rafts are carried 

 along by a current, or wafted by some slight breath of air 

 fanning the foliage of the green trees, it may arrive, after a 

 passage of several weeks, at the bay of an island, into which 



poured 



naturalised. 



may 



tremely rare and accidental occurrence, and may 



may 



may 



account in tropical countries for the extension of some species 



mammalia 



which without such aid they could never have reached. 



