1890.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 5 



group — viz., the islands of San Salvador, Eum Cay, Atvvood's 

 ■Cay, Mariguana, and Little and Great Inagua — are differently 

 situated from those previously mentioned, rising almost ab- 

 ruptly from the deep ocean. 



The time spent in the Bahamas was a little more than six 

 months, two of which were passed in New Providence and the 

 rest in Andros. The former is well known as the seat of gov- 

 ernment and as a health resort. It lies on the northern edge of 

 a portion of the Great Bahama Bank, and is about twenty miles 

 long and seven in width. A ridge runs along the northern side, 

 the highest point of which is lu9 feet above sea-level, and is 

 occupied by an old fort — Fort Fincastle. Here a fine view of 

 the general features of the island may be obtained. To the 

 south stretches a low, level country dotted here and there with 

 cocoanut groves, and in the distance is seen a lower ridge, 

 known as the Blue Hills. To the north we look over the har- 

 bor, half a mile in width, to Hog Island, a cay about four miles 

 long, perhaps half a mile wide, and about twenty feet high. The 

 eastern end is separated by a narrow piece of water, known as 

 the " Sea Garden,'' from Athol or Long Island, locally known 

 as Quarantine Station, a cay about two miles long and but a 

 quarter-mile wide, and continued eastward by narrow shoals. 

 West of Hog Island is the channel, or, as it is called, '' the bar," 

 on the other side of which a number of small cays continue the 

 same general direction as the longer axis of the island. Sea- 

 ward of Hog Island, and separated from it by about one mile of 

 water, is Salt Cay, an island about two miles in length and a 

 quarter in^width. Farther to the north and outside of Quaran- 

 tine Station is Rose Island, another long, narrow cay. Outside 

 of all lies the reef. These facts have been given with perhaps 

 more detail than is interesting, but which, nev^ertheless, is ne- 

 cessary, as it has a bearing upon what follows. 



Andros Island is the largest of the Bahama group, being 

 over ninety miles long and between forty and fifty miles wide. 

 The northern portion is separated from the southern by a broad, 

 shallow sheet of water that contains many cays, large and 

 small, and the passages through from the eastern to the western 

 coast are known as bights. It is interesting to note that Andros 

 is not only the largest of the Bahama islands, but the largest 

 coral island in the world, its northern half alone having a super- 

 ficial area of over 1,200 square miles, while the area of the whole 

 island, so-called, is over 1,900. It lies near the eastern edge of 

 the bank that faces the tongue of ocean referred to above. 



The eastern side of Andros is occupied by a ridge, of which 

 the highest point that I visited, and I think the highest on the 



