“On the 12th of January, 1848, the _Moozuffer_ was steaming amongst the low, swampy islands of the Sunderbunds.... Every now and then the paddles of the steamer tossed up the large fruits of _Nypa fruticans_, Thunb., a low stemless palm that grows in the tidal waters of the Indian Ocean, and bears a large head of nuts. It is a plant of no interest to the common observer, but of much to the geologist, from the nuts of a similar plant abounding in the Tertiary formations at the mouth of the Thames, having floated about there in as great profusion as here, till buried deep in the silt and mud that now forms the island of Sheppey[76].” [Sidenote: DRIFTING OF TREES.] Of the drifting of timber, fruits, &c., we find numerous accounts in the writings of travellers. Rodway thus describes the formation of vegetable rafts in the rivers of Northern British Guiana:— “Sometimes a great tree, whose timber is light enough to float, gets entangled in the grass, and becomes the nucleus of an immense raft, which is continually increasing in size as it gathers up everything that comes floating down the river[77].” The undermining of river banks in times of flood, and the transport of the drifted trees to be eventually deposited in the delta is a familiar occurrence in many parts of the world. The more striking instances of such wholesale carrying along of trees are supplied by Bates, Lyell and other writers. In his description of the Amazon the former writes: “The currents ran with great force close to the bank, especially when these receded to form long bays or _enseadas_, as they are called, and then we made very little headway. In such places the banks consist of loose earth, a rich crumbling vegetable mould, supporting a growth of most luxuriant forest, of which the currents almost daily carry away large portions, so that the stream for several yards out is encumbered with fallen trees, whose branches quiver in the current[78].” In another place, Bates writes: “The rainy season had now set in over the region through which the great river flows; the sand-banks and all the lower lands were already under water, and the tearing current, two or three miles in breadth, bore along a continuous line of uprooted trees and islets of floating plants[79].” The rafts of the Mississippi and other rivers described by Lyell afford instructive examples of the distant transport of vegetable material. The following passage is taken from the _Principles of Geology_; “Within the tropics there are no ice-floes; but, as if to compensate for that mode of transportation, there are floating islets of matted trees, which are often borne along through considerable spaces. These are sometimes seen sailing at the distance of fifty or one hundred miles from the mouth of the Ganges, with living trees standing erect upon them. The Amazons, the Orinoco, and the Congo also produce these verdant rafts[80].”