1890.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 11 



Ocean-Holes. 



Near the caves at Nicols Town was a hole known as the 

 " Ocean-Hole.'' It was abont one hundred feet in diameter and 

 perhaps forty feet in depth, and contained a pool of brackish 

 "water. In one place the wall had been excavated so as to form 

 a small cave, while the rest was quite steep and covered with 

 trees and large blocks of coral rock. In one place was a very 

 marked nnconformability in the rock, the seeming strata below 

 lying at an angle of about thirty degrees, while above the layers 

 were horizontal. This was probably only an unusual arrange- 

 ment of the ^olian formation; but in the Queen's Staircase, 

 where an unusually fine section is exposed, the layers lie at dif- 

 ferent angles, but are wedged in between each other, as it were, 

 and no such sharp nnconformability as that above described is 

 to be seen. 



The name '' ocean-hole " is also applied by the natives of An- 

 dres to deep holes under the water. Some of these are remark- 

 able. The first that I saw was near Mangrove Cay. Here, 

 close to the shore, was a nearly circular hole at least 100 feet in 

 diameter, and in which the water was said to be over 18 fathoms 

 (104 feet) in depth. I did not have an opportunity of sounding 

 it, but the dark blue color of the water told its own story. 



While sailing up Fresh Creek, Andros, we came to another 

 ocean-hole, which I examined. It was about ten miles from 

 the mouth of the creek, close to the northern bank, and about 

 one hundred feet in diameter. From the shore the water for a 

 distance of about fifteen feet was two feet in depth, and then 

 suddenly deepened to eighteen feet over a jirojectiug ledge. 

 Sounding across the hole did not show a greater depth. The 

 bottom of the hole was of soft coral mud. The bottom of the 

 creek surrounding the hole was covered with about two feet of 

 water, and in some places gradually sloped into the hole. Still 

 farther up the creek another hole was seen, but was not exam- 

 ined. The most remarkable ocean-hole that I saw was one near 

 Grassy Creek, near the southern end of the east side of Andros. 

 The diameter was about one hundred and fifty feet, and the 

 shore itself formed one edge of the hole. The sides were of sand 

 at its angle of repose for a depth of about six or seven feet be- 

 low, and resting on an overhanging ledge of rock. Where the 

 tide had fallen it left the hole surrounded by at least a quarter- 

 mile of sand flat on the ocean side, while, as stated above, the 

 shore formed the rest of the boundary. This hole I sounded 

 with all the line I possessed, but at twenty fathoms the weight 

 was cut ofE and I was unable to obtain another to continue the 



