8 FIELD COLUMBIAN MUSEUM BOTANY, VOL. 2. 



in flight, one pretty white schooner that lay near us was quickly 

 blown high up on the rocks a wreck, and a large trading vessel from 

 Belize, dragging her anchor, threatened to follow, but finally escaped 

 with us around the point into the quiet water of Spot Bay. We were 

 thus- driven by the storm to the very point we had failed to reach the 

 day before, a place which, on going ashore, proved of particular 

 interest in its flora. Eighty-eight numbers (1266-1354) were secured 

 here. As I regained the yacht, which was rolling heavily in the sea 

 that now ran in from the point, I arranged the plants in driers on my 

 stateroom floor, a gymnastic feat in the performance of which I had 

 become quite proficient. 



Tuesday, February 14 albeit a drizzling rain fell constantly dur- 

 ing the morning Mr. Armour, Mr. Isham and myself made an 

 extended excursion into the interior of the island (/J55-/jp/), where 

 we encountered the great pest of the place, mosquitoes. While I am 

 unacquainted with the entomological characteristics of this particular 

 species, the horrible torture to which we ungraciously submitted on 

 this trip I had never before experienced. Swarms of the large 

 black creatures settled upon us drawing blood instantly; they refused 

 to be brushed away, only yielding to death. As we neared the 

 center of the island they actually drove us back, and with swollen 

 faces, hands and necks, we fled to the open, conquered and in tor- 

 ment. I was told by a merchant of Georgetown that in May and 

 June these insects became so numerous and terrible that he always 

 closed up his business and left the island. He further vouched for 

 the fact that they killed many head of cattle during the summer and 

 rendered the place uninhabitable except to those people hardened to 

 their poison. 



In the early evening the weather signs warned us that the south 

 coast was in its turn becoming dangerous, and learning that the 

 norther had abated we ran around to our old anchorage off George- 

 town. Here we learned that the Board of Health had decided to 

 raise our quarantine and we were invited ashore. 



We found the main street along the water front a wreck from 

 the storm and littered with debris from shore and sea. We were 

 told that the norther had proved the worst the inhabitants had 

 experienced for twenty years. After an hour spent in collecting 

 about the streets and vacant lots, both of which are noticeably free 

 from the usual weeds of civilization (/j>p2-7^o<5), I was summoned 

 aboard by the yacht's whistle, for the wind had again shifted and 

 the anchorage was becoming untenable. All sail was quickly set and 

 we left this storm-beaten group on a course for the Isle of Pines. 



