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Show 176 MR. CYRIL CROSSLAND ON THE [Mar. 7, after a stay of a little over a week, in order to find means of reaching the Island of Bonavista (text-fig. 24), in the east of tlie group, to examine some " coral-reefs " marked on the charts. This occurred three days later when the Government steamer ‘ Mindello ' left St. Yincent for its monthly circuit of the Islands. I thus saw the northern point of St. Antonio, with its deep valleys, carpeted with vivid green, and the huge precipices of its shores, the lower but rocky shores of St. Nicholas, and the white sand-spit which forms the southern part of Sal-the Island of Salt (text-fig. 21, p. 171). This was the first time I had seen pure white sand in these islands, so suggestive of the vicinity of coral. However, neither here nor at Bonavista, where the same sand forms a large part of the western shore, is there any sand, or indeed any other rock, of coral origin, and the " coral-reefs " of the chart, like others in the vicinity, are simply limestone shoals, not resembling coral-reefs even in form and with either very little or no coral anywhere about them. The same absence of coral-reefs has been characteristic of the past, for although the greater part of at least the western side of Bonavista is of recent limestone, containing in places numerous fossil shells, I found no particle of coral in it, either on the coast or inland, or in the small shallow limestone beds near the town of St. Yincent. Bonavista is not an appropriate name. The appearance of the island is not at all picturesque, and its discovery has not been much blessing to the human race. The island is a desert only a little less complete than the greater part of St. Yincent. As a little grass grows after rain, a population is established on the island subsisting by cattle-breeding. Every few years the rain fails to appear, and as much as a third of the population perishes, since relief works are practically unknown to the Portuguese Government. At Port Sal Rei half the houses are in ruins, and some have even been abandoned during course of erection. Residence among such signs of misery is not pleasant, and I was glad to leave at the end of a fortnight, having satisfied myself that Coral or Zostera habitats do not occur in these Islands. My return to St. Yincent involved three days in a small Italian " felua," but, in spite of the motion of so small a boat and the primitiveness of the accommodation provided (on deck), much of the time was rendered delightful by the number and variety of fish, birds, and dolphins seen close at hand during a calm. 3. C omparison of th e F a u n a w it h th a t of E ast A f r ic a . Although several East-African species reach the Mediterranean, and certainly others extend from this sea to the Cape Yerde Islands, it is at once and certainly evident that the faunas of these two localities, taken as wholes, are distinct. Of species common to the two localities, there are at least three species of Crab, several Prosobrancli molluscs, the Polycluete Eunice |