Keeling

Keeling (or KOKOS KEELING) Islands, a group of more than a dozen coral atolls in the Indian Ocean, 12° S. lat. and about 500 miles SW. of Java, are attached to the Straits Settlements, are covered with cocoa-nut palms, whence oil is extracted, and are inhabited by about 400 Malays, but owned by a Scotchman named Ross. Pigs and rats are the only mammals; there are no land-birds but poultry; crabs, large and small, abound. These islands were discovered by Captain Keeling in 1609 and were visited by Darwin in 1836; it was upon his study of them that he based his subsidence theory of the formation of coral-reefs (see CORAL). Guppy in 1888 found here confirmation of Murray's view. See CORAL.