134 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [1889. 



natural obstacles, as in the lack of enterprise shown by the people 

 and the poor market facilities. The larger growers of pine apples, 

 bananas, etc., are Americans, and the islands present a most inviting 

 place for the employment of American capital and energy. Un- 

 like the Bermudas, deciduous trees are abundant and furnish a nat- 

 ural contribution and aid to cultivation, while the cedar, which 

 retards cultivation, is not of sufficient abundance to have any im- 

 portance. Large quantities of sea weed are available, which, 

 combined with cave earth and sand, would furnish a cheap and 

 available fertilizer. Most of the West Indies have had their flora 

 greatly enriched by the introduction of exotics through Government 

 or individual influence; the Bahamas, on the other hand, while offer- 

 ing a much more favorable and uniform climate than the Bermudas 

 or the more tropical islands, has been singularly neglected, and for- 

 merly cultivated fertile tracts have been allowed to grow up in dense 

 bush or to become denuded of soil. The present Government is 

 making a strong effort to develop the culture of Agave Mexicana 

 or Sisal Hemp* Botanists will find a rich and almost untouched 

 field in the cryptogamic flora of these islands, especially in the 

 Algae. 



The Sand-Dunes of Lewes, Del. — Prof. J. T. Rothrock spoke 

 briefly of the dunes at Lewes, Delaware, and illustrated his state- 

 ments by some photographs, recently taken by him at that place. 



It may be stated in advance that, while the conspicuous change 

 in the surface has been most marked toward Cape Henlopen, 

 the marshes between the Breakwater and the mouth of Lewes Creek 

 have been slowly rising : that whereas a few years ago these marshes 

 were a large number of times overflowed each year, that now this occurs 

 so seldom that the flats are being built upon, and regular crops of 

 marsh hay taken from them. South of the Breakwater, and say 

 one fourth of a mile inland, one encounters a mass of pure shore 

 sand, probably in its greatest depth one hundred feet deep, becom- 

 ing on the north and south and west less and less deep until one 

 reaches nearly the sea-level. On top of this ridge the dead trunks 

 of former forests rise out of the sand. On the northern slope they 

 become less and less abundant, disappearing when one reaches the 

 marsh level. North of this, toward the water's edge a second growth 

 of trees is seen appearing. On the southern slope of the ridge a 

 forest of Pinus rigida stands, but this forest, by the moving of the 

 sand toward the south, is being constantly encroached upon. 



Indeed, at present one may there see trees standing on the 

 natural level, in no wise surrounded or endangered by sand. A few 

 yards to the north of these is the face of the advancing sand hill. 

 There one finds the Pines in all stages of burial, from those whose 

 roots are barely touched, to those (sixty to eighty feet high) whose 



* Report of Ceorge Preston, Esq., as Special Commissioner to Yucatan to 

 Inquire into the working of the Fibre Industry in that Country. Nassau. N. P., 



I.sss 



