AN EXPEDITION TO CHRISTMAS ISLANDS. 143 



that this mass of rocks and pandans was the terrible barrier, 

 its difficulties having been greatly exaggerated. In fact it is, 

 though a stiff walk, quite possible to walk round the coast from 

 the Settlement round North East Point to the waterfall and 

 so back in the day without much trouble. 



On Monday the 3rd October I went with the plant — 

 collector past Rocky Point along the cemetery road to North 

 East Point till we came to the Pandan Scrub again. Hibiscus 

 vitifolius a tall mallow with primrose coloured flowers with a 

 pink eye occurs here scantily. It has not been found else- 

 where in the Island. A large shrubby plant like a Triumfetta i 

 6 feet tall with very adhesive capsules covered with viscid 

 hooks, grew in masses. No flowers were seen. I found a 

 mass of its burs adhering to tny sock when I got home so 

 sticky were they. Celtis was coming into flower as were 

 Macaranga and Grewia. At one point fishermen or runaway 

 coolies had burnt the scrub towards the sea the result of which 

 was a dense upgrowth of Gyrocarpus seedlings now about 8-10 

 feet tall to the exclusion of almost every thing else. While 

 taking lunch a whiteeye flew and settled on my bag where it 

 dropped an ornamental red black and white cricket, new to 

 our collections. 



October 4th. This morning Dr. Hanitsch and I with the 

 Plant Collectors and Taxidermists, as well as a Chinese 

 pigeon-catcher, Ah Soo, started to explore the plateau 

 ascending by a somewhat difficult passage up the rocks at the 

 Northwest corner of the Cove, known as Tom's Ladder. This 

 rock cleft was formerly easier on account of a big fig root 

 which served as a hand hold, but it was now dead and rotten 

 and broke in two. However by taking off our shoes with the 

 aid of Ah Soo we succeeded in climbing up. The ground 

 above was a steep earthy slope, with large bushes of Colu- 

 brina and a short tufted grass. Panicum n. sp. new to the 

 flora occurred here, above the plateau is level, and we went 

 along a pigeon-catcher's track till it joined the Murray Hill 

 Road and brought us out on the pipe-line at Irvine Hall. Ah 

 Soo climbed one of the trees and caught three of the large 

 pigeons with a noose on the end of a long stick, and could 



J.i. A, Soc, No. 45, 1905. 



