GREAT BARRIER REEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20028, 18 August 1928, Page 8

GREAT BARRIER REEF.

BIG PUZZLE TO SCIENCE/ TASKS FOR EXPEDITION. MANY QUESTIONS FOR STUDY. SECRETS OF THE CORAL. [from a special correspondent.l (Copyright.) No. II On the scrap of sun-soaked sand where the expedition to the Great Barrier Reef has set up its camp alongside the Low Island Lighthouse scientific history 13 being made. Marooned by their own will on this islet of a few acres, a. little band of men and women has set itself to the I study and if possible tho solution of questions which have puzzled the scientific world for well nigh a century, ever since serious attention began to be given to the growth of coral and the many puzzles set by coral reefs and coral islands.In another way this expedition is making history. It has established what may, fairly be called Australia's first marine biological station. For the first time a comprehensive and detailed study of the conditions of plant and animal life in Australian seas is being made. Low Island and the surrounding reefs are but a speck in the immensity of the Barrier, to say nothing of Australia's 10..000 miles of coastline, but a beginning has been made.

It is no wonder that the eyes of the scientific world are on Low Island. And Australia and New Zealand may well follow with the keenest interest the work that the British scientists and their Australian associates will bo doing there during the corning twelve months and more. " Don't talk to me about the glamour and the glory of the tropics and all that Blue Lagoon stuff," said a member of the expedition to an enthusiastic visitor from the mainland. " What have I to do with the blue skies, the coral gardens and all the rest of it when my job is to sit at a bench all day and count up and . tick off all sorts of weird sea-creatures ? Plymouth and Low Island are much the same to me." Elaborate Census Work. This scientist is engaged on that sort of census work which is an important [»art of the expedition's task. He is helping to take stock of the life, animal and vegetable—as well as that which seems to be about half and half, such as the sea-anemones and the coral itself—of the Low Island "station." Bird men sometimes make elaborate calculations of the number of birds in , large region by counting those to be seen in a certain definite area and then working out a. total. In somewhat the same way the expedition is, among other things, collecting the creatures to be found in certain restricted areas and then calculating with that as a basis. The expedition is, too, studying the question of the effects on the life of the sea of the salinity of the water, its temperature and the variations in its mineral constituents. Another thing to be studied is the zones of life to be found at different depths in the sea. But though the questions to bo studied aro very much the same in essence at Plymouth and at Low Island, the conditions of life and of the work of collecting aro very different, even if the actual jobs of the cataloguers and anatomists are very much the same at the two places. Short of Fiction Standard. The coral islands of fiction always have groves of cocoa nuts which are not only, ornamental—if one can overlook the resemblance to animated feather-dusters of gigantic size—but useful as supplying the milk in the coceanut. They are inhabited, too, 'by natives of incredible grace and beauty. Low Island is made of coral but it falls sadly short of the standard. There arc no cocoannt trees and there are no natives. There are the lightkeepers, but that is another matter. Life on Low Island is rather like living on board a ship. It is true that the island is broader than a modern liner, though not much longer, but then it lacks many of the home comforts of an up-to-date ship. One can walk round the island of Samarai in 20 minutes, if "lie does not walk very fast, but it takes a good deal less time than that to walk round Low Island. Housing and Food Problems. The housing problem has been solved by the use of wooden huts. As to supplies, some of the fish caught in the interests of science are also suitable for the frying pan and there are eggs to be had •at times. The boring expedition on Oyster Gay, not far away, throve during the laying season on the eggs of the terns. Other things have to be brought by motor launch from Cairns or from .Port Douglas. In the so called winter of the north, with the temperature varying from 60 to 75 degrees or thereabouts, there is no need for very much in the way of clothing. Later, those who burn easily will have to take precautions against the sun. '