296 THE ZOOLOGIST. 





respects the Houtman's Abrolhos are of great interest, as they 

 are, with the single exception of Bermuda, the locality farthest 

 removed from the equator where reef-building corals are to be 

 found in active growth ; and, although they can scarcely be 

 regarded as true "oceanic islands," being only ninety miles 

 from the west coast of Australia, and the soundings between 

 them and the mainland not exceeding one hundred fathoms, 

 several peculiar forms of animal life (and I believe some peculiar 

 plants also) have been developed upon them. They are memor- 

 able, too, in the early history of Australian exploration, as having 

 been the scene of the disastrous wrecks of two Dutch discovery 

 ships. The first of these, the ' Batavia,' Commodore Pelsart, 

 was lost in 1627 on one of the southern islands of the group, a 

 small remnant only of her crew reaching Java, after terrible 

 sufferings from want of food and water. The mouldering timbers 

 of this vessel were found by Capt. J. L. Stokes during his visit to 

 the islands in 1840. The other ship, the * Zeewyk,' was wrecked 

 here in 1728, her people, more fortunate than those of the 

 ' Batavia,' escaping to Java in a sloop built of fragments of the 

 wreck. Many relics of this disaster were also found by Capt. 

 Stokes, including a very curious brass four-pounder with a 

 movable breech-block, showing that breech-loading guns are not 

 entirely a modern invention ; this gun is, I believe, to be seen in 

 the museum of the Koyal United Service Institution. Capt. 

 Stokes also mentions the finding of numerous square bottles, 

 arranged in rows in the sand, and evidently used for the storage 

 of water by the shipwrecked crew. I afterwards saw some of 

 these bottles in the museum at Perth. 



The Houtman's Abrolhos were first closely examined by 

 Capt. Stokes, of the famous little surveying-ship * Beagle,' in 

 April and May, 1840, and many interesting details are given in 

 his narrative of the voyage (' Discoveries in Australia,' vol. ii. 

 pp. 140-166). Of late years the large deposits of guano on Rat 

 Island and other southern members of the group, to which he 

 was the first to direct attention, have been actively worked by a 

 West Australian firm, but the northern islands are very seldom 

 visited. 



I went on shore on East Wallaby Island soon after the ship 

 anchored, with three of my messmates, who were bent on 



