82 
Life on a Sandbank. 
283. What the gloomy night had mercifully hid, what the storm and 
excited waves had stunned, we discovered at break of day : the whole of 
the expedition suffered the pangs of sea-sickness. Firmly chained to the 
sandbank we had to remain lying here until one o'clock in the afternoon, 
when we were only released without further accident from our involun- 
tary standstill with the returning flood. 
284. The Arabian Coast along which we now made our way consists, 
like the whole stretch of coast line in general, of alluvial land which 
forms on its decomposition an exceedingly fruitful soil. This is luxur- 
iantly overgrown with the glistening Rhizophora Mangle, Avicennio, 
nitida and tomentosa as well as with Laguncularia raeemosa and Cono- 
carpus erectus Jacq. which with their refreshingly bright green foliage 
provide an extremely pleasant fringe to the flat coast-line, but at the 
same time contribute a very great deal to its unhealtliiness owing to 
their peculiar root-branches for the most part being raised above the 
surface: the two former block and retain in their labyrinthine ramifica- 
tions much of the detritus brought down by the rivers and deposited on 
the coast by the tide, where they fairly poison the air with their decay- 
ing decomposition. 
285. In spite of this harmful influence, the ever fresh green of these 
bushes gives the extensive flat lands a really delightful charm, which is 
still further increased by the many mingled-coloured flocks of red ibis, 
white egret, rosy-red spoon-bill and beautiful proud flamingo as well as 
by numbers of other water birds: it is the loveliest edge for the rich car- 
pet unrolling itself behind. With incoming flood and at eve the count- 
less feathered hosts fly back with dire discordant din to the green-leaved 
coastal bushes and trees, to wait there for the ebb tide or for the dawn : 
it is extraordinary that the different genera then keep completely separ- 
ate from one another. 
286. On the afternoon of 21st April we reached the mouth of the 
Waini and after landing our baggage on a large bank composed of sand 
and shell fragments heaped up by the waves, and sending the schooner 
back to Georgetown, started to pitch our tent: this was easier said than 
done because none of the tent-posts would hold in the soil which was 
loose and constantly giving way. 
287. After satisfying my most necessary requirements, T commenced 
to examine more carefully the composition of our shifting plot of 
ground. The extensive elongate bank consisted, as just mentioned, of 
an accumulation of sand, shell, and shell fragments which the powerful 
current had collected here: the molluscs themselves however had got 
lost, already probably on their involuntary journey. Although the real 
native country of many of these snails and shells was the Indian Ocean, 
the Senegal, China and the South Seas, they must nevertheless also be 
forthcoming on some as yet unknown stretch of the Atlantic Ocean, be- 
< ause the current could not have brought them from these situations 
here. Thus I found : Marginalia coerulescens Lam., Nation marocliien- 
sis Lam., Buccinum Miga Adans., Dolium fascia turn Lam., Nncula ros- 
tiata. Fuses Mono Lam., Pi/rula melon gen a Lam., Purpura cataract a 
Lam. 
288. It often happens that a resident of the coast when looking of 
a morning for some such sandbank upon which perhaps only the day be- 
