LILLIPUTIAN FOREST. 
59 
waters wliicli surround the reef. My predilection 
for the study of nature was here gratified by the 
sif^ht of several strange creatures. I watched with 
curiosity the movements of the horseman-crabSj 
lightly skimming over the level sand on the tips of 
their toes ; and there were numbers of huge brown 
locusts, everywhere leaping about or spinning round 
your head with a whirr. A large, downy hum- 
ming-bird liawkmoth, with rapidly-vibrating wings 
and fan-like tail, hovered incessantly about the 
white, many-cleft flowers of the Scaviola Lobelia, 
which abounds here. On the outskirts of the 
Lilliputian forest were spread verdant carpets, com- 
posed of Crassulacese, succulent, thick-leaved plants, 
watered by the salt spray, among the damp roots of 
which the land-crabs fonn large, deep burrows. As 
I wandered on I came to a shallow lagoon, divided 
by a tongue of land into two portions. Near the 
end of it screw-pines or Pandanus, and a few other 
trees, formed quite a pretty miniature picture of a 
tropical jungle scene. Madrepore-masses of giant 
proportions, left high and dry by tempests, fringed 
