486 KEELING ISLAND 



described^ the natural history of a lagoon island in the Radack 

 Archipelago ; and it is remarkable how closely its inhabitants, 

 in number and kind, resemble those of Keeling Island. There 

 is one lizard and two waders, namely, a snipe and curlew. Of 

 plants there are nineteen species, including a fern ; and some 

 of these are the same with those growing here, though on a spot 

 so immensely remote, and in a different ocean. 



The long strips of land, forming the linear islets, have been 

 raised only to that height to which the surf can throw fragments 

 of coral, and the wind heap up calcareous sand. The solid flat 

 of coral rock on the outside, by its breadth, breaks the first 

 violence of the waves, which otherwise, in a day, would sweep 

 away these islets and all their productions. The ocean and 

 the land seem here struggling for mastery : although terra firma 

 has obtained a footing, the denizens of the water think their 

 claim at least equally good. In every part one meets hermit 

 crabs of more than one species,^ carrying on their backs the 

 shells which they have stolen from the neighbouring beach. 

 Overhead numerous gannets, frigate-birds, and terns, rest on 

 the trees ; and the wood, from the many nests and from the 

 smell of the atmosphere, might be called a sea-rookery. The 

 gannets, sitting on their rude nests, gaze at one with a stupid 

 yet angry air. The noddies, as their name expresses, are silly 

 little creatures. But there is one charming bird : it is a small 

 snow-white tern, which smoothly hovers at the distance of a few 

 feet above one's head, its large black eye scanning, with quiet 

 curiosity, your expression. Little imagination is required to 

 fancy that so light and delicate a body must be tenanted by 

 some wandering fairy spirit. 



Sunday, April '^rd. — After service I accompanied Captain 

 Fitz Roy to the settlement, situated at the distance of some 

 miles, on the point of an islet thickly covered with tall cocoa- 

 nut trees. Captain Ross and Mr. Liesk live in a large barn- 

 like house open at both ends, and lined with mats made of 

 woven bark. The houses of the Malays are arranged along 



^ Kotzebue's First Voyage, vol. iii. p. 222. 



2 The large claws or pincers of some of these crabs are most beautifully adapted, 

 when drawn back, to form an operculum to the shell, nearly as perfect as the proper 

 one originally belonging to the molluscous animal. I was assured, and as far as my 

 observation went I found it so, that certain species of the hermit-crabs always use 

 certain species of shells. 



