103 
The Queensland Naturalist. 
Nov., 1928" 
hundred. A very extensive lagoon affords shelter from 
the rough seas, and a very narrow passage is the only 
deep entrance into the lagoon; this is not easily found at 
dark or on a rainy day, and special care is needed by 
the navigators. Inside this great lagoon a dingey is 
very handy, and many a half day can be spent rowing 
among the coral pools which are gleaming with colour 
and life. By means of a glass bottomed bucket, which 
I took with me, we were able to look into the deep and 
see the most interesting and beautiful things, fishes 
swimming about and darting in and out of the coral in 
such natural and delightful surroundings that cannot be 
described better than a paradise of marine life. 
Anyone visiting Lady Musgrave Island and the 
Lagoon is advised to provide himself with a glass-bottom 
bucket, which might be called a “Marineoscope. ” There 
are many different kinds of coral, different in shape and 
colour, some hard and brittle, others soft as weeds. Coral 
does not live and grow above low water mark; at this 
height it forms a levelled surface. Many pieces of coral 
get torn loose by the waves and roll on top of the other- 
wise even surface; some of these are of enormous size, and 
are called “niggerheads” ; these projecting pieces are 
rough and hard, and as they cannot be seen at full tide, 
are dangerous to motor boats. By turning over these 
boulders of dead coral, many living things will be noticed, 
in particular a great variety of crabs, and occasionally a 
“Long Tom” or a “Coral Shark” darts out. One draw- 
back to visitors to Lady Musgrave Island is that there is 
no drinking water. This has to be brought from Bunda- 
berg, and on account of shortage we could not stay there 
as long as we would have liked. 
IToskyn Island was visited from Lady Musgrave 
Island, and is in reality three islands separated by about 
a mile of reef, which at low tide is dry, but the nature 
of the coral is brittle, and very hard to walk on. The 
northern section of this island is entirely a rookery for 
the Gannet. The Gannet is a large brown bird, with a 
white belly (not unlike a white apron). These birds nest 
on the ground and seem to lay only one egg at a season. 
At the time of our visit most of the young ones were 
hatched, some just out of the shell, while others looked 
like full grown birds ; in fact, some as large as the parent, 
but their wings had not developed, and they were still 
covered in pure white down. Wherever a person looks 
a mother bird and its young can be seen. The mother' 
