— 222 — 



covered by coarser and finer sand, sometimes mixed with clay ; 

 ttie darker parts sFiown in the figure are coarse-grained gravel and 

 snail and mussel-shells. In low-lying spots, covered with water, 

 here and there a growth of young Rhizophora and Avicennia 

 slowly made its appearance; sometimes these low lying spots, 

 especially in the eastern part of the lagoon, were covered by 

 Buppia maritima L. 



Seawards in the eastern exposed end of the lagoon, a rather 

 high sand-dune appears with the ordinary sand-vegetation, which 



(c'k; 



•''^■^■ 



Fig. 14. The dead mangrove forest in the eastern part of Krausse's lagoon, 



St. Croix. (F. B. phot.) 



landwards is intermingled with Conocarpus erecta L., and gradually 

 as the ground falls, evenly passes into a Laguncularia and Avi- 

 cennia vegetation, in the innermost part of which Batis mari- 

 tima L. often occurs in great numbers. This sheltering sand vegeta- 

 tion was in full vigour, as is seen on the picture of the lagoon 

 (see fig. 13). 



Passing from the plantation "Anguilla", down towards the 

 lagoon, one first traverses a slightly sloping sugar-field, and then 

 reaches an almost even, imperceptibly sloping grass plain, a Sporo- 

 bolu8-f\e\d, almost exclusively consisting of Sporobolus virginiciis 

 (L.) Kth. The soil which is only lying some few feel above the 



