6 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [OCT. 13, 



island, is marked on the chart as Salvador Point, locally known 

 as Bearing Point. Its height I had no means of determining, 

 but I judged it to be about 100 feet. At the extreme southern 

 end, as at Grassy Creek, this ridge is absent and the land is 

 low. 



"When one has crossed the ridge, wliich is covered with angio- 

 spermous trees, he enters a large forest of Finus baliamensis 

 which occupies the greater portion of the interior of the island. 

 The land is here almost level, and in some places, as near 

 Loggerhead Creek and Wide Opening, there are extensive lakes 

 of fresh water. Upon passing through the pines and reaching 

 the west side, one comes to the most remarkable feature, how- 

 ever, of the island. Here one sees spread out before him, as far 

 as the eye can reach, a low, swampy country covered with small 

 mangroves, Conocarpus and Avicennia, bounded on one side by 

 the water, and sometimes, in the distance, by a dark line of 

 pines. The pines, however, frequently jut out in points that 

 approach quite close to the water's edge. This level, swampy 

 land is locally known by the very appropriate name of ^' swash." 

 To the west of the land stretches the Great Bahama Bank for 

 a distance of from fifty to seventy miles, and the slope of the 

 bottom is so exceedingly slight that at the distance of seventy 

 miles from shore the water is but three or four fathoms deep. 

 The bank then plunges suddenly into the ocean beyond. 



There are many creeks on the island, and the water in all, at 

 a distance of ten or fifteen miles from the mouth, is drinkable. 

 Many little streams of fresh water flow into these creeks, thus 

 partially draining the immense area of swash. 



The creeks are generally narrow and winding, and by wearing 

 away the land on the convex side of the curves change the char- 

 acter of the surface of the country. This was most plainly 

 seen up Cabbage Creek, near Wide Opening, on the west side. 

 Here, as the creek wore its way into the land, it was followed 

 on the concave side by a growth of small mangroves, while its 

 convex side was fringed with palmettos. As the creek, in wind- 

 ing, changed its course, the palmettos and mangroves changed 

 sides, as it were, the former always on the outside of the curve, 

 thus making quite a striking alteration in the appearance of the 

 landscape. 



The surface on the western side of Andros is composed of an 

 exceedingly fine, almost impalpable calcareous coral *'mud'* 

 that also forms the bottom of the shallow water that covers 

 the bank. As we go back from the water's edge this deposit 

 becomes harder and harder, until finally it is cemented into a 

 hard, very fine-grained rock that is very different in appearance 



