CH. VI MABINE FAUNA OF TALIS SE SHORES 145 



snakes, and lizards have not far to seek their food. In 

 fact, to cut a long story short, nearly all the forms of 

 animal life, whether they crawl upon the earth, fly in the 

 air, or swim in the waters, whether they breathe the air or 

 water or are amphibious, whether they are animal, vege- 

 table, or carrion feeders, can hve and find their proper 

 food within the limits of the mangrove swamp. 



There are no droughts, floods, sandstorms, or other 

 disasters to check at times the increase of their numbers, 

 and the dense canopy of leaves which shelters them from 

 the burning rays of the midday sun forms a mighty blanket 

 to protect them from the cool breezes of the night. The 

 struggles between the animals and the elements are, in fact, 

 reduced there to a minimum ; there are no great variations 

 of temperature to be prepared for, no scarcity with change 

 of season, no extraordinary conditions of the elements, but 

 the animals are able to devote their vital energies entirely 

 to their own interests and the struggles for existence with 

 one another. 



The mangrove swamp not only forms a field of striking 

 interest to the biologist, but should enter largely into all 

 considerations of the geology of these coasts. A very 

 noticeable feature of the coasts of Celebes is the fact that 

 nearly all the coral reefs are fringing reefs and not 

 barrier reefs ; or, in other words, the reefs are rarely more 

 than a few hundred yards from the shore, and separated 

 from it by a lagoon which is only a few inches deep at 

 low water. This may, to a very large extent, be due to the 

 steepness of the shores, but not entirely. It is partly due 

 to the growth of the shore platform. Some of the reefs 

 would, I beheve, have had the characters of true barrier 

 reefs if they had not been followed in their seaward exten- 

 sion by the mangrove swamp and shore platform. I have 

 already indicated in a previous chapter (p. 23) the line of 



