Narrative of the surveying voyages of his majesty's ships Adventure and Beagle (vol.3)

April, 1836. transport 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 these 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 tlie 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 land-birds ; for a snipe and a rail [Rallus phiUippensis), 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 {Porphj/riol) was shot near the summit of the mountain ; and it was evidently a sohtary straggler. From these circumstances, I believe, the waders are the first colonists of any island, after the innu- merable 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 Hzard. Of insects, I took pains to collect every kind. Exclusive of spiders, which * Kotzebue's First Voyage, vol. iii., p. 155.