THE BAHAMAS 303 



Eleuthera, which takes its name from Eleuthera croton, 

 a plant formerly much used in medicine, has but few 

 inliabitants. Cat Island, bo named from the domestic ani- 

 mal, which has run wild, is about one hundred and sixty- 

 five square miles in extent. It has a population of four 

 thousand people, descendants of revolutionary Tori--. 

 Watlings Island and Rum Key arc inhabited by small 

 communities. 



East of AVatlings Island there is a Long, narrow strait 

 through which the Windward Passage commerce threads 

 its way. On the easl of this is an archipelago composed 

 of the three islands called Fortune, Crooked, and Acklin, 

 which really constitute a single island, being divided by 

 shallow channels fordable at low water. Fortune Island 

 is a port of call, touched by steamers plying between New 

 York and the West Indies. 



Still to the eastward the only islands of importance are 

 the Turks and Caicos groups, which are attached to 

 Jamaica for administrative purposes. They consist of 

 ( i rand Turk, Salt Key, and a few uninhabited keys. Grand 

 Turk is only seven miles long and a mile and a half wide. 

 Salt Key is nine miles long. 



Turks Island was made famous as a port of call by the 

 sailing-masters who frequented it in former years. The 

 principal features of interest and revenue are the -alt- 

 ponds, aggregating five hundred and ninety-three acres, 

 each acre of which is capable of yielding aboul four thou- 

 sand bushels of salt per annum, dependent niton the 

 weather. A million and a halt' bushels are annually shipped 

 to the United States and to Halifax, where it is principally 

 used in tin- codfish industry. The total export is valued 

 at $156,750. Sponges are ;ils<> extensively gathered and 

 shipped. Here also is the home of the conch from which 

 is obtained the valuable pink pearl. There is no water lit 

 for human consumption excepl rain-water, for which seven 

 public tanks have been constructed on Turks Island. 



The total population of the group is fifty-seven hundred 



