October i, 189!.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
369 
Boon bowever, ran wild, and did much havoc 
among the pigeons and small birds, Mr. Ross 
has since obtained a remarkable breed of lox- 
terriers which are more suocessful. These dogs go 
out in batches o( twenty-five, every day, and the 
rat mortality is steadily on the increase. As in 
Chrismas leiand, the large slato-ooloured pigeon 
is abundant, A number of deer were seen, and 
jungle fowl are beautiful and not exceedingly 
difficult to get at. Fish are very plentiful and 
on a lake in the Kortb Keeling Island, Mr, 
Roes has a breed of sea ealmon or salmon trout 
which afford exoelient sport for fishermen. A 
large green fish of heavy weight is plentiful. 
During the visit, the people on the “ Rattler” caught 
two of these fish, one weighing 88 pounds and 
the other 50. For table purpose, it is said this 
fish cannot bo surpassed. Altogether, to the natu- 
ralist or sportsman, the Cocos would well repay 
a visit. Shells in great variety and of great 
beauty are plentiful everywhere ; specimens have 
been brought back in the ” Rattler,” ranging in size 
from large shells of the oyster tribe which two 
or three sailors can barely carry, to tiny shells 
of which a thimble would hold a dozen. The 
inhabitants have a wonderful collection of boats, 
and some of Mr, Boss’s Una built boats would 
Compete for speed with anything of their class 
anywhere. The islands have passed through one 
or two strange experiences of late years. Some 
seven years ago, when a volcano, 700 miles off, 
in the Straits of Sunda, was in eruption, the 
air became so full of ecotiaoeous matter that al- 
most total darkness prevailed for forty hours 
literally as in Egypt of old this was a ” dark- 
ness that could be felt.” It can in fact be picked 
up by handfuls still in some parts of the island. 
Again some years ago a terrible typhoon struck 
the islands and destroyed almost everything. Bo 
violent was it that, in Mr. Ross's own bouse, 
there was not a single piece of furniture unbroken 
by this storm that crushed in doors and windows 
as if they were the flimsiest of obstructions. The 
only currency in the ieland is the notes signed 
by Mr, Boss, ranging in value from five rupees 
downward. These are used as cash for all kinds 
of trade and other insular transactions, and, when 
a man is leaving the islands, Mr. Boss gives 
him a cheque for any notes he may possess. The 
coral growth of these islands is sufficiently rapid 
to upest. Admiralty survey doings continually. Mr. 
Boss estimates that above a certain depth the 
polyps build at the rate of nine inches a year. 
In course of time, this coral growth will join 
the islands into one. The officers of the "Rattler" 
have made new surveys during this voyage, so that at 
present, the soundings are known well enough. The 
anchorage at the Cocos is exoelient . — Straits Times, 
let. Beptember. 
^ 
A JAPANESE OPINION ON TEA. 
A Japanese merchant whose views are reproduced 
in the Jiyu, delivers the following opinion abont the 
fnturo of the export trade in tea and silk : — ” The 
most important staple ot export in Japan is silk, and 
after it some tea, coal, and rice. The future of the 
trade in silk and tea is not bright. * • • As for 
tea, which stands next to silk on the list, there is a 
demand for it in America and Buseia^ but in its case 
also the outlook is not good. Looking at the figures 
of the export trade daring the past six years, we find 
that in 1885 the value of the tea sent abroad aggre- 
gated 6,864,120 yen ; in 1886 it rose to 7,720,820 yen i 
m 1887, it fell to 6,603.341 yen; in 1888, to 6,120,000 
ven ; i„ I88y, to 0,150,000 yen, and in 1890 to 6,320,000 
yen. This deolining, or at best stationary, condition 
>• due to various causes, tbs chief of whico appears 
to bo gradnsl development of tea oultivatiou in Obina, 
India, and Ceylon, te.i, of whioh plaoes is ousting ours 
in Western markets. The export of Indian tea in 
1887 amounted to 80,800,000 lb., in the following year 
it rose to 89,783,000 lb., and in 1889 the returns showed 
92,590,000 lb. Bnesia, again, to whioh Japan lias torued 
of late for a market, is beginning to grow quanti- 
ties of tea on her own account, eo that that the ptospeot 
for importers becomes lass and less enoouraxing. On 
the whole, 1 oonelude that for Japanese eerioiiltarista 
and tea-men alike the ont-look is far from favourable. 
— China Mail, 
LONDON TEA LETTER. 
As regards the prices obtained for small single boxes 
ot Fancy Tea, it seems hardly fair to those who have 
obtained good prices for real, commercial, breaks, to 
place the former in the '* Uonour List,” thus causing 
the more profitable Gommerclol Lines, to take a lower 
position on the ” Honour List ” than their real merit 
entitles them to. As any iidta sahib in his first 
season on Tea, oonld, if he were allowed to play the 
fool, torn out a small box of these Fancy Teas, the 
" Honour List," will, for the abovd reasons, the Season, 
take presedenae of the ” Fancy List,” the latter being 
quoted, rather for the ” fun of the thing ” than for 
any more weighty reason 
Qoomtee .. .. 20 bf-ebts Bro. Fok. ..2 61 
Darjeeling Co. .. 48 chests Pekoe ,.2 6 
Jokai Co. (Bokel) .. 12 do Or. Pek. ..2 ii 
Ooomtee .. ,>24 ht-ohts Or. Pek. ..2 Sf 
Jokai Oo. (Panitola) .. 22 chests Bto. Or Pek.. 2 St 
Lebang ., 8U do do ..2 31 
Jokai Oo. (Panitola) .,17 do Or. Pek. ..2 Vi 
PANOV LIST; 
Bromley (Ceylon) 
Box, Cold Tea 
Court Lodge (Ceylon) 
Beaumouut do 
Kintyro do 
Do. do 
Gopolpore (Kangara) 
S. Leys (Ceylon) 
Drayton do 
• Refused, 
— Indian Manters’ Gazette, Sept. 11, 
Tip, 
.,7 7 
..7 6 
..7 
..7 
..7 
..7 
.6 
2 Boxes, Sliver Tips 
1 Box, „ 
1 „ Cold Tip 
1 „ Silver Tip 
1 „ Cold Pek. 
1 .. Cold Fly Peak 
..6 6 * 
..6 U 
..6 3 * 
,.6 0 * 
.6 0 * 
.3 9 
,.3 0» 
. — « 
I’I'ANTOiSkbino, — -I t is odd to think of plants as seeing, 
but Mrs. Robert King describes an expericiico in India 
that she regards asoonfirmiug her linsbiiDd’stbcory that 
orceping plants have some taculty akin to siglii. Mr King 
was seated with one foot against a pillar, when a 
kind ot convolvnlns growing near was steu to turu 
towards bis leg, which was then kept iuu;i iiiuss 
until, at the end ot an hour, the toudrils had laid 
themselves over it. He then went to breakfast, and 
on returning found that the plant had turned away 
iu disgust. A pole woa procured and placed against 
the pillar about a foot from the nearest siirays of 
convolvulus, aud in ten minutes they had buguu to 
curve toward it, and iu a few hours the tendrils bad 
twisted quite around it. The pole was on the side 
away from the light, and the observeis find it 
difficult to acoount lor the phenomenon except by 
assuming that the plant could see the pole , — Mildura 
Cultivator, 
(It more likely felt by some subtle iulluonco the 
exEtonoe of an object suitable for its support. 
iTi 
