KEELING ISLANDS, also called Cocos, in the Indian Ocean, south of Sumatra, were discovered in 1608-9 by Captain W. Keeling, E.I.C. Service. Till 1823 they were little known, but then Alexander Hare established himself on the S.E. island with a party of Malays and Malay women. He was afterwards joined by Captain J. C. Ross. The South Keeling is a cluster of skeleton islets, rising about 20 feet above the sea, encircling a shallow lagoon of an oval form, about 9 miles long and 6 wide. The other islands are North Keeling, Selema or Fairlie Island, Burial, Ross, Water, Direction, and Horsburgh Islands. North Keeling is in lat. 11° 50' S., and long. 96° 51' 3" E. Fresh water is not scarce on the larger islands, and cocoanuts, pigs, poultry, pumpkins, turtle, maize, and sugar-cane may be procured. Captain, afterwards Admiral, Fitzroy observes that in these singular islands crabs eat cocoanuts, fish eat coral, dogs catch fish, men ride on turtle ; shells are dangerous man-traps, the greater part of the sea-fowl roast on branches, and many rats make their nests at the tops of high palm trees. Mr. Darwin found here evidence of subsidence ; earth quakes have been repeatedly felt ; on every side of the lagoon, in which the water is as tranquil as in the most sheltered lake, old cocoanut trees were undermined and falling. The foundation posts of a stone house on the beach, which the inhabitants said had stood, seven years before, just above high-water mark, were then daily washed by the tide. The cocoanut crab, Birgus latro, hermit or
robber crab of the Keeling Islands, is a kind of intermediate link between the short and long tailed crabs, and bears a great resemblance to the Paguri ; they live on the cocoanuts that fall from the trees. The story of their climbing these palms and detaching the heavy nuts is merely story. Its front pair of legs are terminated by very strong, heavy pincers, the last pair by others narrow and weak. To extract the nourishment, it tears off the fibrous husk, fibre by fibre, from that end in which the three eyes are situated, and then hammers upon one of them with its heavy claws until an opening is effected. It then, by its posterior pincers, extracts the white albu minous substance. It dwells in deep burrows, where it accumulates surprising quantities of picked fibre of cocoanut husks, on which it rests as on a bed. Its habits are diurnal, but every night it is said to pay a visit to the sea, perhaps to moisten its brauchim. It is very good to eat, and the great mass of fat accumulated under the tail of the larger ones sometimes yields, when melted, as much as a quart of limpid oil. They are esteemed great delicacies, and are fattened for the table.—Figuier ; Bilcmore, p. 149 ; Darwin, Voyage ; Findlay.