97 
cover the rocks with their greedy multitudes. Some of these crabs 
are not much less than 10 or 13 cms. (4-5 inches) in breadth, and 
their flesh was excellent. They might afford, in case of need, a diet 
inexhaustible as well as healthful. 
Insects are in general not numerous on this island, if we except 
the ants, which alone number five or six different species, and whose 
innumerable legions occur in every situation. After the ants come 
the Blattas or Cockroaches, of which one apterous species attained 
very large dimensions. Grasshopper, crickets, etc., furnished us with 
several curious- -species. 1 must mention, in this connection, that 
the family of Orthoptera, which generally prefer arid and dry 
places, presents a large number of species in the Continent of Ne\v 
Holland, and each of them appears to be excessively numerous 
there. More than once we shall have occasion to note interesting 
connections between the nature of the soil and its various pro- 
ducts. 
Among the tumbled rocks which I have described live several 
species of sea-urchins, which it is sometimes very difficult to remove 
from the calcareous rocks in which they appear to be incrusted. In 
the same places live several species of Starfish, of the genus Ophiura; 
one of them ( Ophiura telactes, n. sp.) is distinguished by its long- 
arms, 21-27cms. (8-10ins.), jointed, fragile, and quite bristling with 
little spines. Withdrawn into the fissures of the rocks, this animal 
extends ils long arms outside, and uses them with much skill to seize 
its prey and withdraw it into the interior of its little cavdra. A 
second species of Ophiura (0. phosphorea , n. sp.) shines during the 
night like a beautiful star, by the aid of five glands or tubercles 
placed on its disc. 
In the class of solid Zoophytes, besides some species of Mille- 
pore, a branched Madrepora is found, from 16-I9cms. high (6-7ins.), 
whose extremity is marked, in the fresh state, by an extremely 
bright and pure rose colour. 
From all the observations which I have just narrated on Ber- 
nier Isle and the waters which surround it, we conclude that the ter- 
restrial animals are very few in species and all save the kangaroo are 
useless or harmful; whilst the sea on the other hand is remarkably 
rich, and from the whale to the microscopic polyp all the classes of 
the animal kingdom are represented there by numerous and interest- 
ing families; and when, in another part of this account, we shall 
have described the various productions of the great gulf at whose 
entrance we have now arrived, it will be seen, beyond doubt, that 
few seas have been more generously dowered than that which bathes 
these coasts.” 
As the “Naturaliste” did not appear, they decided to proceed 
further into the Bay, which they did on June 30th. “During the 
whole day we made little progress, navigating ceaselessly amidst 
great shoals of fish, of which we caught a great, abundance, although 
