81 
Photoblepharon palpebratus) were brought me by the fishermen; the 
sight of some freshly caught specimens, kept in a dish with water 
in a dark room, is truly impressing; the light they emit is almost 
strong enough for reading, and when they blink, covering the luminous 
organ through raising the “lid” situated below the organ, I could 
not help being reminded of corn-lightning. The blinking does not 
occur at regular intervals, and, upon the whole, relatively rarely. 
That the fishermen cut out the luminous organ and use it for bait 
is a well known faet. The conclusion reached by the American 
specialist in Bio-luminescence, O. N. Harvey, who had been stay- 
ing at Banda a short time before our visit there (1920) in order 
to study especially the luminescence of the laweri, that it is due 
to luminous bacteria living in symbiosis with the fish, does not 
make this rather unique case of luminescence less interesting. I 
have seen only the Photoblepharon, no specimens of the other 
laweri , Ånomalops katoptron, being caught during my stay at 
Banda. 
In spite of the many interesting faunistic and biological obser¬ 
vations made here, it does not seem to me that Banda would be 
a very good place for a biological laboratory as the one planned. 
Certainly Banda does not equal Amboina or, especially, the Kei 
Islands, as regards the richness of the fauna as well as in other 
respects. There is very easy access to the greater depths, of 
course, the little group of islands rising direetly from depths of 
about 4000 Meters. But this does not imply anything like so easy 
an access to the abyssal fauna as is found at the Kei Islands. And 
there are several serious objections to be made against choosing 
Banda for the place of the future station. Thus e. g. the water 
appears, according to experiments which I undertook, unfavourable 
to experimental work — mueh as I expected from the volcanic con- 
dition of the place. But it seems to me superfluous to give the 
reasons against choosing Banda as the place for a future laboratory 
more in detail, the advantages of the Kei Islands in this respect 
being so evident that hardly anybody could be in doubt as to which 
place to give the preference. 
On the return voyage to Java the — usual — four days’ stay 
in Macasser, due to the time table of the mail boats, was made 
Vidensk. Medd. fra Dansk naturh. Foren. Bd. 76. 6 
