VOYAGE OF THE FLY. 



CHAPTER I. 



CAPRICORN GROUP STRUCTURE OF A CORAL ISLAND — 



NUMBER OF BIRDS AND TURTLE ONE-TREE ISLAND 



HERON ISLAND — WRECK ISLAND SWAIN's REEFS — GALE 



OF WIND AND DANGEROUS ANCHORAGE — NUMBER OF 



ANIMALS IN A DEAD CORAL BLOCK ANCHOR FOUL 



AMONG CORAL ROCKS — DAMAGE TO SHIP'S BOWS. 



On Jan. 7, 1843, I landed for the first time 

 in my life on a coral island. This was a little islet 

 called the First Bunker's Island, in the northern part 

 of the Capricorn Group, which is an assemblage of 

 islets and reefs on the north-east coast of Australia, 

 having the 152° of longitude, and the tropic of Ca- 

 pricorn passing through them. 



The beach was composed of coarse fragments of 

 worn corals and shells, bleached by the weather. 

 At the back of it a ridge of the same materials, four 

 or five feet high, and as many yards across, com- 



VOL. I. B 



