CORAL CRABS 93 



sculpture that they are hard to distinguish from the 

 bits of dead, worm-eaten coral amid which they live. 

 So perfect in some cases is this protective disguise, 

 that you may even find growing on them the same 

 calcareous sea-weed and the same branching Fora- 

 minifera [Polytrema) with which dead coral is so 

 commonly encrusted. The most perfect disguise of 

 this sort is attained by Oreophorus reticulatus, Fa?'- 

 thenope investigatoris, Carpilodes cariosus, and Adcea 

 flosculata, all of which you may find here. The fishes, 

 too, include several species of small flat-fishes so 

 curiously dappled and mottled as to defy detection as 

 they rest on coral shingle : one of the most perfectly 

 concealed species of the Ceylon coast is Samaris 

 cristatus, whose effective toning surpasses description. 



On our passage from Ceylon across the Bay we 

 got into the wake of a cyclone, which gave us so 

 much to do that no thought of dredging or sounding 

 ever entered anyone's head, and we were very glad 

 when we found ourselves safe in Port Blair harbour. 



Diamond Island, where at length we dropped our 

 boat-party, is a little sandstone islet, covered with 

 jungle, at the entrance of the Bassein River, populated 

 only so far as is essential to the upkeep of a pilot- 

 house, a telegraph-station, and a small meteorological 

 observatory. It is a great breeding resort of turtles, 

 and the Burmese who farm the eggs objected that 



