Confessions of a Beachcomber eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 401 pages of information about Confessions of a Beachcomber.

Confessions of a Beachcomber eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 401 pages of information about Confessions of a Beachcomber.
the locality the more acceptable to the presence of plants which luxuriate in sweetness and solid earth.  Another denizen of the partially reclaimed area of the mangrove swamp is the “milky mangrove,” or river poison tree, alias “blind-your-eyes” (EXCAECARIA AGALLOCHA).  In India the sap of this tree is called tiger’s milk.  It issues from the slightest incision of the bark, and is so volatile that no one, however careful, can obtain even a small quantity without being affected by it.  There is an acrid, burning sensation in the throat, inflamed eyes and headache, while a single drop falling into the eyes will, it is believed, cause loss of sight.  Yet a good caoutchouc may be prepared from it, and it is applied with good effect to ulcerate sores, and by the blacks of Queensland and New South Wales for the relief of certain ulcerous and chronic diseases; while in Fiji the patient is fumigated with the smoke of the burning wood.  Several of the plants produce more or less valuable woods.  BRUGUIERA RHEEDI frequently grows slender shafts, favoured by blacks for harpoon handles on account of their weight and toughness.  White mangrove provides a light, white tough wood eminently adapted for the knees of boats.  The seeds resemble broad beans, and after long immersion in the sea will germinate lying naked and uncovered on the scorching sand, stretching out rootlets in every direction in search of suitable food, and expanding their leathery primary leaves—­even growing to the extent of several inches—­while yet owing no attachment to the soil.  If it were not capable of surviving and flourishing under conditions fatal to most plants it could not contribute its quota to the formation of humus favourable to the progress of the advancing hosts of tropical vegetation.

A weird and stealthy process is this invasion of the ocean, which leads to the alteration and amendment of the surface of the globe.  Here, may be watched the very growth of land—­land creeping silently, irresistibly upon the sea, yet with a movement which may be calculated and registered with exactitude.  Having fulfilled its purpose, the mangrove suffers the fate of the primitive and aboriginal.  Tyrannous trees of over-topping growth, which at first hesitatingly accepted its hospitality, crowd and shove, compelling the hardy and courageous plant to further efforts to win dominion from the ocean.  So the pioneer advances, ever reclaiming extended areas as the usurping jungle presses on its rear.

Nor must it be imagined that mangrove swamps are unproductive.  Fish traverse the intricacies of the arching roots, edible crabs burrow holes in the mud, and in them await your coming, and more often than not baffle your ingenuity to extricate them.  Among other stalked-eyed crustaceans is that with one red, shielding claw, absurdly large, and which scuttles among the roots, making a defiant clicking noise—­the fiddle or soldier crab (GELASIMUS VOCANS).  Oysters seal themselves to the roots, and various sorts of

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Confessions of a Beachcomber from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.