CHAPTER VI 



A TARPON NURSERY IN HAITI 



About fifteen miles west of Port-au-Prince, 

 Haiti, along the shore of the gulf itself, are two, 

 interconnected land-locked lagoons known as 

 Source Matelas. I visited them first with General 

 John H. Russell on the thirteenth of January in the 

 hope of getting a few brace of ducks. At the last 

 minute I put a small seine in the car in case any 

 fish might be procurable. We had bad luck as 

 regards ducks for there was only a quartet of blue- 

 winged teal, and these left before we got within 

 shot. Willets, Louisiana herons and yellowlegs 

 composed the remaining bird life of the lagoon. 

 Grey kingbirds and mockingbirds called and sang 

 in the tops of the low trees, and grass quits and 

 migrating warblers hopped about the underbrush. 



The more western of the lagoons was a rounded 

 body of water about one hundred yards across, on 

 a marshy promontory backed by low, rolling hills. 

 These were covered with the usual semi-arid vege- 

 tation, consisting of cactus, cereus and acacias. 

 From the waters of the gulf the lagoon is separated 

 only by a narrow dyke built up apparently by the 

 action of the storm waves at high water. 



67 



