70 



C. HEDLEY. 



as to overspread the rocks with a cushion which may 

 extend for yards without a gap. (Plate IV, fig. 7.) 



Fig. 36. A mass of cunjevoi, Cynthia prceputialis, from low water on 

 the ocean reef. 



Fishermen scoop the viscera from the leathery envelope 

 for bait, but the colonies so stript from the rocks are soon 

 renewed. The- fisherman's name for it, "cunjevoi," prob- 

 ably represents one of the few words of the local aboriginal 

 language which still survives. 



Cynthia is a patrician of beach society, whose strength 

 and organisation protect a company of weaker plebian 

 dependents. Between the stout firm trunks are many dark 

 safe crevices which make pleasant homes for worms, 

 Crustacea, mollusca and such like crytozoic fauna. 



In this zone there occurs, though rarely, small patches 

 of reef-coral, Plesiastrea urvillei, which appears like green 

 moss when seen alive at the bottom of a pool. It is inter- 

 esting as being the furthest outlier of tropical reef corals. 



