AGASSIZ : BAHAMAS. 59 



Going on shore, we found it composed of the ordinary aiolian rock of 

 tlie Bahamas, its character admirably shown in the cuts made for the 

 boat landintj and for tlie foundation of the derrick used in handlinj? 

 the sni)phes. Tiie cay, wherever exposed to the strong waves of the 

 Gulf Stream, is deeply pitted and honeycombed. We found a few speci- 



-r':<f^'piTSSit^. 



GUN CAY. 



mens of the same pupa so common on other islands of the group. 

 The vegetation was very scanty, — a few scattered sjiecimens of cac- 

 tus, wild grape, wild geraniums, and verbena, — with tlie usual plants 

 characteristic of the shore belt throughout the Baliamas. Among the 

 most prominent rocks north of Gun Cay, between it and the Beminis, 

 are Turtle Rocks, forming a low rocky icolian ridge. 



The Beminis. 



Plate XII. Fig. 3. 



The Gulf Stream skirts close to the western edge of the two Beminis. 

 They are separated by a picturesque opening, forming an excellent har- 

 bor even for boats of a considerable size. At the south end of both 

 South and North Bemini we tind a long line of angular a;olian rocks 

 thrown up by hurricanes well above high-water mark, often fully twenty 

 feet. From here to the northern end extends a long C(M-al sand beach, 

 disconnected in many places by extensive patches of shore built coral 

 rocks, covering in many places the underlying reolian formation. The 

 greater part of the shores of the Beminis is made up of this shore 

 deposit, piled up above the older reolian rocks wherever they have been 

 washed away, and forming small cliffs along the northern face of the 

 western shore line of North Bemini. Here and there an occasional 

 cliff of the older feolian is seen, but greatly weathered and worn, as 

 near the northern extremity of North Bemini, some distance above the 

 village. The sea has thrown up a high beach and formed a lagoon at 

 that end, which is filled with mangroves and small mangrove islands. 

 The outlying rocks of North Bemini are all teolian, the surface pitted 



