70 



BULLETIN : MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 



an immense accumulation of large conch shells covering an extensive 

 flat, and also forming a wall of at least five feet iu height above low- 

 water mark. These conchs are of course of all sizes, and the fragments 

 into which they have been broken are in all stages of wearing by the 

 action of the sea. Such masses of conchs, forming almost as great an 

 accumulation as might be due to an Indian shell heap, we have not 

 found anywhere else in the Bahamas, although in many places we met 

 with smaller heaps. All along the line of the bank, in from four to six 

 fathoms of water, we found the continuation of the coral reef wliich we 

 struck soon after reaching the lighthouse near Hole in the ^yall. 



Owing to threatening indications of a norther, we turned back, and 

 passing in by Channel Cay entered on the Little Bahama Bank. We 

 soon came upon the northera extremity of Mores Island, which can 

 readily be distinguished by the greater height of the cay and the 

 rounded hills of which it is formed. In this vicinity the bank is thickly 

 covered with conchs, which are collected by the inhabitants and buraed 

 to make lime. Mores Island is composed of teolian rock, and is fairly 



MORES ISLAND. 



wooded. Here and there the promontories of some of the hills have 

 been washed away by the sea, so that the shore is composed of patches 

 of low limestone cliffs alternating with sandy beaches. On the west 

 shore tlie modern coral sand beach formation hides from view the 

 underlyinsi- reolian rock. From Mores Island towards the north end 

 of Ahaco there is excellent sponging ground, and all the way from Black 

 Rock to Mores Island the bank is covered with extensive patches of 

 sponges and Gorgonians. The extensive coral reef to the westward of 

 I'.lack Rock and Cliannel Cay reaches some little way over the bank, 

 and shows special vigor in the vicinity of the Channel. 



Off the northeast point of Mores Island the dredge came up filled with 

 several species of coralline algae and sponges. The bottom samples con- 

 tained but few specimens of Foraminifera, aiid the sand at this point was 

 already much finer and more sticky, as compared with the coarse coral 

 sand of the entrance of the Channel. We found an abundant surface 



