OCR Text |
Show 542 KEELING ISLAND. April, 1836. In Holman's* 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 intwining round its trunk, and supporting itself by the prickles on its stem; the soaptree ; the castor-oil plant ; trunks of the sago palm ; and various kinds of seeds unknown to the Malays who settled on the islands. These are all supposed to have been driven on shore by the N.W. monsoon to the coast of New Holland, and thence to these islands by the S.E. tradewind. 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 this island, are common littoral species in the East Indian archipelago. From the direction, however, of the winds and currents, it seems scarcely possible that they can have come here in a direct line. If, as suggested with much probability by Mr. Keating, they have first been carried towards the coast of New Holland, and thence drifted back again, together with the productions of • Holman's Travels, vol. iv., p. 378. April, 1836. TRANSI'Oit'r OF SEEDS. 543 that country, the seeds, before germinating, must have travelled between 1800 and 2400 miles. Chamisso, * when describing the Radack Archipelago, situated in the central part of the Western 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 t.hese seeds appear to have not yet lost the capability of growing." It is also said that trunks of northern firs are washed on shore, which must have been floated from an immense distance. These facts are highly interesting. It cannot be doubted, if there were land-birds to pick up the seeds when first cast on shore, and a soil more adapted for their growth than the loose blocks of coral, that such islands, although so isolated, would soon possess a more abundant Flora. The list of land-animals is even poorer than that of plants. Some of the islets are inhabited by rats ; and their origin is known to be due to a ship from the Mauritius, which was wrecked here. These rats have rather a different appearance from the English kind ; they are smaller and much more brightly coloured. There are no true ]and-birds; for a snipe and a rail (Rallus phillippensis), though living entirely among the dry herbage, belong to the order of Waders. Birds of this order are said to occur on several of the low islands in the Pacific. At Ascension a rail (Porphyria?) was shot near the summit of the mountain ; and it was evidently a solitary straggler. From these circumstances, I believe, the waders are the first colonists of any island, after the innumerable web-footed species. I may add, that whenever I have noticed birds, which were not pelagic, very far out at sea, they always belonged to this order; and hence they would naturally become the earliest colonist of any distant point. Of reptiles, I saw only one small lizard. Of insects, I took pains to collect every kind. Exclusive of spiders, which • Kotzebue's First Voyage, vol. iii., p. 155. |