78 
however, quite impossible. As soon as he reached the bottom they 
disappeared round him, and as he walked on they disappeared in 
the ground before him. He tried to dig them up from the fine, 
loose, black sand, but this also proved impossible, although he dug 
as deep in the sand as his arm’s length. He tried a second time 
digging with a spade, which he carried down with him, but likewise 
without success. Enough was, however, seen to show that these 
organisms were not Pennatulids, but gigantic Polychaete worms, 
sitting in the sand in a similar way as Tubifex in fresh water pools, 
the posterior end (at least I think it must be the posterior end) of 
the body waving free in the water above the bottom. They were 
observed to sit not so very close, probably not more than some 
20 in a square Meter; they covered an area of several hundreds 
square Meters, probably much more, being, evidently, found also 
farther out in deeper water, where they could not be observed on the 
dark bottom by means of the water glass. This interesting animal 
community I have not met with anywhere else. 
The iron columns of the pier at the town were, no less than 
at Amboina, a favourite ground for all sorts of Gorgonians, Sponges, 
Hydroids etc., with all sorts of gorgeously coloured fishes swarming 
around them. The bottom between the tide limits was black with 
Diadema's, which collected on the lower part of the stony wall inside 
the pier in some places in such masses, that the long thin, hori- 
zontally protruding black spines appeared like a giant brush. Where 
— as is a common practice — the inhabitants have their “W. C.”s 
over the water, Xht Diadema's always were seen to collect in dense 
masses, finding here a favourite feeding ground with a rich food 
supply. 1 was very surprised in finding here also large, gorgeously 
coloured Åsthenosoma's in so shallow water as even to lie on dry 
ground at low tide. Apparently they also visited the same feeding 
ground as the Diadema's. At another place Prionocidaris haculosa 
was found in numbers among stones lying dry at low water. 
The extensive sandy flåts along the S. and E. coast of Neira 
and at the inner side of Lontor offered collecting grounds of con- 
siderable interest. Besides the, as food much valued, Tripneustes 
gratilla we collected here Peronella Lesaeuri and a pair of small 
forms of Laganum, as also some Brissus. While in day time these 
animals lie covered with sand and are not easily detected, at 
