PROTECTIVE COLOURING 99 



boil it one, two, and three times, so that it appears 

 like brandy, and will affect a man's head by merely 

 smelling it, to say nothing of drinking it. This is 

 the wine which is drunk in these countries. From 

 another branch of the said tree they produce in a 

 similar manner this juice, and convert it into sugar 

 by means of fire ; but it is not very good. The said 

 tree always has fruit either green or dry, and it pro- 

 duces fruit in five years. As to the goodness of this 

 tree, when the kings are at enmity one with another, 

 and kill each other's children, they nevertheless some- 

 times make peace. But if one king cut down any 

 of these trees belonging to another king, peace will 

 never be granted to all eternity." 



On our way to the Cocos we trawled in 41 

 fathoms, hitting a marvellous foul bottom that tore 

 the trawl to pieces, but did not hurt the swabs, in 

 which great numbers of sponges and corals and star- 

 fishes and sea-lilies were entangled. From out of 

 these we picked a host of little, timid crustaceans, 

 many of which were protectively coloured. Most 

 remarkable of all were two little hermit-lobsters of 

 the genus Galathea, one striped like a wasp, with 

 violet and blue, and living on a sea-lily striped in 

 exactly the same fashion ; the other white, with pink 

 spots, and living on a white and pink sea-pen. 



From the 2nd to the 9th December I was marooned 

 on Great Coco Island, in company with Dr Prain 



