ST. AUGUSTIN TO BAHAMA ISLANDS 303 



the track of hurricanes ; no longer than three years 

 ago they were exposed to the fury of one which did 

 much damage to shipping and houses. According to 

 the observations of a Mr. Rose, 93-96 Fahr. is the 

 highest point shown by the thermometer, and the low- 

 est is 45. On the whole, this is a desireable climate ; 

 only some 2-3 hot months, and for the rest of the year 

 a continual spring, with an air clear and temperate. 

 Many sick and ailing persons therefore take refuge 

 here with good results. 



Alligators are plentiful among these islands ; but in 

 size they yield to those of the continent. 



Divers other lizards, in part figured by Catesby, are 

 everywhere abundant. The finest of them is that with 

 the sky-blue tail (Lacerta striata L.). They are ex- 

 tremely swift and difficult to catch; their tail as brittle 

 as glass : if one is quick enough to seize them by it, it 

 comes away in his hand for his pains. Another small 

 lizard was, sitting on a cactus, green, caught and put 

 in a box, brown, and again green after it was dead. 

 Still another, with a brilliant crop, hanging down long 

 and flat on the throat, was at first brown, and then 

 after death whitish, and later grey. On Rose Island 

 there is a lizard, some 6 inches long, called by the in- 

 habitants Guana-lizzard ; it is of a greyish-brown 

 color, keeping by day near the water on the shore, but 

 not going into the water; when it runs it carries its 

 tail raised. 



In shallow and rocky places along the shore are 

 found black and white sea-urchins (Echinus), divers 

 sea-stars (Asterias), sea-hares (Tethys), and two 

 species of wing-worms (Clio), the one with black 

 tiger-spots, the other without spots ; both, when seized, 



