90 EAMBLES OF A NATUEALIST. [Ch. VI. 



of the harbour on either side. That on the north side is 

 called Image Point on the chart, but the south side is even 

 more remarkable, and no less deserves this name, while the 

 effects are upoii a larger scale.* Crossing over the narrow 

 sandstone platform connecting Palm Island with the main- 

 land, and which is covered at high water, I found myself 

 in an extraordinary spot, where the soft sandstone has been 

 worn away by the force of the waves into a variety of fan- 

 tastic forms, for the most part resembling gigantic mush- 

 rooms — huge stalks, 10 or 12 feet high, bearing vast balls 

 of harder material upon their summits, like immense nine- 

 pins ; hiUs with excavated flanks, and harder knobs and 

 ridges, over the foremost of which the waves were dashing, 

 sending up the spray 50 or 60 feet high, although the sea 

 was Comparatively calm. Some of the heads of these huge 

 mushrooms had fallen off, and remained as great round 

 blocks with hard ridges, such as are often seen, but whose 

 history could here be distinctly traced, as could also a 

 further step in the disintegration of the beach ; — ^for in 

 many places round, deep holes were bored in the solid rock, 

 which were evidently produced by one of these hard heads 

 resting upon a softer spot, where ^t had been twisted and 

 whirled about by the waves, wearing and boring its bed as 

 though with an auger, sinking deeper and deeper, until at 

 length it was itself worn away and dissipated by the long- 

 continued grinding action, leaving a clean-cut deep hole in 

 the rock from a foot to a yard in diameter, but containing 

 nothing but clear sea water. 



I have little doubt that the harbour of Ke-lung is slowly 

 rising, though I have not sufficient data to show the rate 

 of elevation. The evidences of this elevation are to be 

 * See Frontispiece. 



