484 
KEELING ISLAND 
CHAP. 
In Holman’s 1 Travels an account is given, on the authority 
of Mr. A. S. Keating, who resided twelve months on these 
islands, of the various seeds and other bodies which have been 
known to have been washed on shore. Seeds and plants 
from Sumatra and Java have been driven up by the surf on 
the windward side of the islands. Among them have been 
found the Kimiri, native of Sumatra and the peninsula of 
Malacca ; the cocoa-nut of Balci, known by its shape and 
size ; the Dadass, which is planted by the Malays with the 
pepper-vine, the latter entwining round its trunk, and supporting 
itself by the prickles on its stem ; the soap-tree ; the castor-oil 
plant; trunks of the sago palm ; and various kinds of seeds 
unknown to the Malays settled on the islands. These are all 
supposed to have been driven by the N.W. monsoon to the 
coast of New Holland, and thence to these islands by the S.E. 
trade-wind. Large masses of Java teak and Yellow wood 
have also been found, besides immense trees of red and white 
cedar, and the blue gum-wood of New Holland, in a perfectly 
sound condition. All the hardy seeds, such as creepers, retain 
their germinating power, but the softer kinds, among which is 
the mangostin, are destroyed in the passage. Fishing-canoes, 
apparently from Java, have at times been washed on shore.” 
It is interesting thus to discover how numerous the seeds are, 
which, coming from several countries, are drifted over the wide 
ocean. Professor Henslow tells me, he believes that nearly all 
the plants which I brought from these islands are common 
littoral species in the East Indian archipelago. From the 
direction, however, of the winds and currents, it seems scarcely 
possible that they could have come here in a direct line. If, 
as suggested with much probability by Mr. Keating, they were 
first carried towards the coast of New Holland, and thence 
drifted back together with the productions of that country, the 
seeds, before germinating, must have travelled between 1800 
and 2400 miles. 
Chamisso, 2 when describing the Radack Archipelago, situated 
in the western part of the Pacific, states that “ the sea brings to 
these islands the seeds and fruits of many trees, most of which 
have yet not grown here. The greater part of these seeds 
1 Holman’s Travels , vol. iv. p. 378. 
2 Kotzebue’s First Voyage, vol. iii. p. 155. 
