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

544 KEELING ISLAND. April, 1836. were numerous, there were thirteen species.* Of these, one only was a beetle. A small species of ant, swarmed by thou- sands under the loose dry blocks of coral, and was the only true insect which was abundant. Although the productions of the land are thus scanty ; if we look to the waters of the sur- rounding sea, the number of organic beings is indeed infinite. Chamissof has described the natural history of Ronianzoff, a lagoon island in the Radack Archipelago. The number and kind of productions there is very nearly the same with those here. One small lizard was seen : wading birds (Numenius and Scolopax) were numerous, and very tame. Of plants, he states there were nineteen species (including one fern) ; and some of them are the same species with those I collected here, although on an island situated in a different ocean. These strips of land are raised only to that height, to which the surf can throw fragments, and the wind heap up sand. Their protection is due to the outward and lateral increase of the reef, which thus breaks the sea. The aspect and constitution of these islets at once call up the idea, that the land and the ocean are here struggling for mastery : although terra-firma has obtained a footing, the denizens of the other element think their claim at least equal. In every part one meets hermit-crabs of more than one species,^ carrying on their backs the houses they have stolen from the neighbouring beach. Overhead, the trees are occupied by numbers of gannets, frigate-birds, and terns. * The thirteen species belong to the following orders. Culeoptera, a species of minute Elater ; Orthoptera, a Gryllus and Blatta ; Hemiptera, one ; Homoptera, two ; Neuroptera, a Chrysopa ; Hymenoptera, two ants ; Lepidoptcra Nocturna, a Diopffia, and a Pterophorus (?). Diptera, two. f Kotzebue's First Voyage, vol. iii., p. 222. X The large claws or pincers of some of these crabs, are rjost beau- tifully adapted, when drawn back, to form an operculum to the shell, which is nearly as perfect as the proper one that belonged to the original molluscous animal. I was assured, and as far as my observation went it was confirmed, that there are certain kinds of these hermits, which always use certain kinds only of old shells.