Mangrove Swamps and their Inhabitants, 3451 



Mangrove Swamps and their Inhabitants. — The muddy shores of intertropical Aus- 

 tralia, especially at the mouths of creeks or rivers, and along their banks as far up as 

 the influence of the salt water extends, are usually overgrown with mangroves of one 

 or more of about six species. Along the banks of one of these salt-water channels the 

 trees are usually of moderate size, — sometimes mere bushes ; but when the country in 

 the neighbourhood is low and inundated at high water, they frequently attain to much 

 greater dimensions. One may imagine an extensive grove of slender-stemmed trees, 

 with trunks raised above the mud and water, five or six feet or more, by numerous 

 supporting arched roots, devoid of branches until near their summits, where the dark 

 green foliage of their large glossy leaves forms a dense canopy, casting a gloomy shade 

 upon everything below. The singular fruit of the mangrove is sure to arrest the atten- 

 tion of even the most incurious. Germination commences while the seed is still at- 

 tached to the evergreen stem, and it is not until it has sprouted out to the length of 

 several inches that it drops — a young plant — into the mud below, which is thenceforth 

 to become its nursery. These vegetating sprouts, of one species of mangrove, form a 

 most important article of food to the aborigines of the Cape York district during the 

 rainy season there, or between the months of November and March, both included. 

 Large heaps of them are collected by the women, upon whom, I may mention, the pro- 

 curing of almost all articles of food, except fish and game — in addition to every kind 

 of domestic drudgery— is imposed by their lazy partners. A number of stones, the 

 size of the fist, are heated by means of a fire made over them, and when rendered suf- 

 ficiently hot, the embers are swept away, and a quantity of mangrove-sprouts placed 

 upon the stones ; these are covered over with pieces of the paper-like bark of the Me- 

 laleuca (the "tea-tree" of the colonists), tufts of grass, and a sprinkling of sand, in 

 order to confine the steam arising from the soft, heated mass. After about an hour or 

 so the mangrove-shoots are taken out, pounded singly between two stones, and the 

 pulp, in the shape of a grayish, slimy paste, is considered to be fit for food. But, to 

 resume. — The curious arching roots of the mangroves, of which the principal is Khi- 

 zophora Mangle, interwoven with each other in the most complicated manner, and 

 affording a more secure footing than the mud in which they become imbedded, are 

 worthy of examination. They often support clusters of delicious oysters, and many 

 curious shells of the genera Auricula, Nerita, and Littorina, are found upon the root- 

 like supporting shoots, and occasionally creep a little way up the trunks. On the mud 

 hundreds of Gelasimi — the males furnished with great pincers, one of which is nearly 

 as large as the body — may be observed scampering off lo their burrows ; small fishes 

 (Chironectes) are leaping about in all directions by means of their strong pectoral 

 fins, and, nowise incommoded by the temporary want of their native element at low 

 water, even seek refuge on the trunks of the trees ; and occasionally one may detect a 

 fine large Cyrena, by seeing its white, eroded umbones projecting above the surface, 

 on which are scattered about great numbers of long, spiral, univalves — Cerithium pa- 

 lustre, C. telescopiura, &c. Many kinds of herons, ibises, kingfishers, and other birds, 

 obtain their food in these dismal swamps; and one may there frequently observe large 

 fruit-eating bats (Pteropus funereus), three feet or more between the wings — the " fly- 

 ing foxes " of the colonists — suspended from the branches, and looking like strange 

 unearthly creatures. Crossing a mangrove swamp of considerable extent is at all times 

 an arduous undertaking, especially on a sultry day, when not a breath of air is stir- 

 ring, and the fierce heat of a tropical sun raises sickening exhalations from the mud, 

 and the stillness of these noisome solitudes is broken only by the hum of myriads of 



