CHAPTER IX 



The Bahamas, Old and New 



I 



HAVE been asked more than once why I have de- 

 voted so large a part of my life to studies connected with 

 the Bahama Islands. The answer is that I have been gov- 

 erned partly by sentiment and partly by chance. The fact 

 that Allison Armour liked to cruise in the Bahamas gave 

 me a number of opportunities to visit islands which were 

 normally inconvenient of access and I was swayed by senti- 

 ment because it was here that my grandmother first in- 

 troduced me to the tropics, an experience which, as I have 

 explained, played a very large part in determining my hfe's 

 work. 



The Bahamas are a happy hunting ground. To be sure 

 they have a depauperate fauna but the question is, was 

 that always so? I think the answer is no. We know from 

 early historical accounts that some of the islands were 

 forested and there are other reasons for believing that this 

 was the case. Many a stately gateway now standing in what 

 is pitiful scrub vegetation on rocky sterile soil is the only 

 remains of the rich sea-island cotton plantations which 

 existed before the days of British emancipation. I imagine 

 that probably even before this time the temptation to 

 clear land with fire had initiated the work of destruction. 

 Burning and reburning have consumed the humus and 

 most of the islands are now desolate indeed. If only the 

 cave earth had not been so rich in fertilizing value that 



