14 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [OCT. 13, 



very great. If we could have a good view of tlie proper bottom 

 of a banana-hole, we might be able to account for their forma- 

 tion; but, unfortunately, the bottom is always filled with a deposit 

 of earth or blocks of coral rock, and generally covered with vege- 

 tation. 



It is not improbable that the deep cylindrical ones were formed 

 in the same manner as pot-holes. And others might have ori- 

 ginated in the same way as the spouting-holes, where the waves 

 undermine the shore and afterward break an opening in the 

 rock above. Should some of the boiling-holes, described above, 

 become elevated and their bottoms filled up with fallen blocks 

 of coral rock and deposits of earth, they would form banana- 

 holes. The holes in the cracks at Fresh Creek can be easily ex- 

 plained, but if all banana-holes were formed in this manner we 

 should find them in a line with others, which I was told was the 

 case, but I was never able to satisfy myself that it was so. The 

 caves are often the result of the former action of the sea, and 

 some of them have probably been washed out by rain-water; 

 but in either case, should a portion of the roof fall in, it would 

 make a banana-hole if small, or, if large, an ocean-hole like the 

 one near Nicols Town. The horizontal passages are evidently 

 washed out by water, but whether by the sea or rain-water I do 

 not l^now, but I believe either might have accomplished it. It 

 is difficult to understand how underground channels could be 

 formed under water, yet tlie boiling-holes prove that such exist ; 

 but there is no means of determining whether they were formed 

 under the present circumstances or at some previous period 

 when the land might have been elevated. 



I was told that holes were as common under the water as they 

 were on the land, but did not myself observe this to be the case ; 

 but then my opportunities for observation in this direction were 

 limited. I infer from the facts I have given that banana-holes 

 and caves pass gradually into each other, and that they have been 

 formed by the action of the sea-water and afterwards modified 

 by the action of rain-water, aided by the products of the decom- 

 posing vegetable material and in some cases by the falling-in of 

 the roofs of the caves. 



Effects of Vegetation on the Surface. 



One of the facts that I noticed shortly after my arrival in the 

 Bahamas was the occurrence of great numbers of blocks of coral 

 rock scattered irregularly over the ground, and I first thought 

 tiiat tliey were the result of the excessive erosion that I saw tak- 

 ing place around me. But on some of the cays — as on Goat 

 Cay, described above — where the erosion was most rapid, there 



