BENEATH TROPIC SEAS 



the plane took hold with its canvas feathers again 

 and we went on as before. A last chit came, 

 "Too damned cloudy." I nodded more heartily 

 than I ever remember to have done at any news 

 in my life, and we stuck the nose of D.H. 202 up 

 toward a tiny shaft of blue struggling down be- 

 tween the mists. With only two side dips and a 

 waggle at the summit she climbed steeply and 

 reached the necessary level, and set her course 

 over land and gulf straight for her hangar 

 nest. 



Having located some of the large inland lakes 

 during my various flights, I paid visits to some of 

 them — enough to collect the more abundant fish 

 and to realize what an untouched field of research 

 is offered by the ecology of these remarkable bodies 

 of water. Etang de Miragoane is fifty-five miles 

 west of Port-au-Prince and so completely sur- 

 rounded by reeds and unfathomed mud that it is 

 exceedingly difficult to reach open water. We had 

 to be content with but a meagre showing of fish, 

 but the marshes were a veritable open-air aviary. 

 Glossy ibis got up and scaled over the reeds, 

 herons — little blue, Louisiana, green and night, and 

 both egrets — were scattered about. Jacanas were 

 in family groups, stepping over the lily-pads, while 

 curlew and yellow-legs waded and fed. Grebes of 

 two species, noisy coots and clouds of tiny sand- 

 pipers made this an unusual sight in Haiti. 



The great inland salt lakes of the Cul-de-Sac, 

 especially Etang Saumatre would repay a six 



108 



