A Monograph of Christmas Island (Indian Ocean), Physical Features ana Geology

Abstract

TILL 1887 Christmas Island, which is situated in the Indian Ocean nearly a degree to the south-southwest of Batavia, was scarcely known, even by name, to the average Englishman, and only the low-lying shore had been visited by explorers; the steep cliffs, together with the forest with which the island is clothed, forming a barrier which had hitherto prevented access to the central plateau. In that year the Commander of H.M.S. Egeria, with the assistance of a landing party, succeeded in cutting his way into the interior; and two years later the island was leased by the British Government to a trading company. Since it contains an area of about forty-three square miles, and appears never to have been inhabited by aboriginal tribes, it presented a most favourable opportunity for studying the fauna and flora of an oceanic island of considerable size situated at no very great distance from a considerable land-mass—the Sunda Archipelago. Down to the time mentioned, it appears, indeed, to have been the largest uninhabited tropical island extant; and as the discovery of valuable deposits of phosphates in the interior indicated that its pristine conditions would soon be rudely disturbed, it was evident that if a biological survey was to be undertaken at all, there was no time to be lost. Fortunately, Sir John Murray interested himself strongly in the matter, and it was eventually arranged that Mr. C. W. Andrews, of the British Museum, who is both a geologist and a zoologist, should undertake the work. He accordingly spent ten months on the island during the years 1897–98; and the present volume, in which he has had the assistance of a number of specialists, is the result of his labours. A Monograph of Christmas Island (Indian Ocean), Physical Features ana Geology. By C. W. Andrews, with descriptions of the Fauna and Flora by numerous contributors. Pp. xv + 237. (London: Published by order of the Trustees of the British Museum, 1900.)