298 TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION 



On the rocky shores of one of the southern Bahama 

 islands there is found a great store of hardened bitu- 

 men. During the war this was used here at various 

 times for caulking ships, and it was found to answer 

 the purpose very well ; it was even believed that by it 

 ships were kept freer of worms than by the common 

 pitch. But the latter now being again to be had cheap 

 enough from North America, the use of the other has 

 been discontinued. Similar earth-pitch occurs in other 

 of the West India islands, often of a softer nature, or 

 still viscous and pliable, and is known as Barbadoes 

 tar. 



Ships' bottoms in the West India waters grow soon 

 foul, all manner of muscle-fish, cockles, and other 

 vermin attacking them, and hindering the passage of 

 the keel through the water, and besides, various kinds 

 of worms bore into the planks and help to rot them. 

 A ship which lay 6 months in the harbor of Havanah, 

 brought away a coating several inches thick of every 

 sort of vermin, which had fastened over the entire 

 bottom. There were small oysters, and the so-called 

 mangrove-oyster ; Lepades, Actiniae, Ascidiae, Ne- 

 reides &c. To prevent this the Bahama buccaneers at 

 one time made use of a particular kind of ant-hills to 

 be found in the woods here ; mixing the ashes of 40-50 

 or more of these ant-hills, burned, with the pitch and 

 tar they used to overlay their ships' bottoms. But 

 this being no longer the practice, I suppose the method 

 was not found to answer in keeping off the worm. 

 These ant-hills are of a conical shape ; I have seen 

 them as much as four and a half feet high, and. more 

 than two feet through. They consist of a very brittle, 



