PREFACE 



THE OCEAN ISLAND is a record of the highlights of two 

 expeditions to Inagua, that lonely and unfrequented island. In 

 a sense, it is the story of an expedition that failed of its original 

 purpose but which was compensated by certain unexpected and 

 rather full experiences which otherwise would have been lost. 



The technical accounts of these sojourns have been pub- 

 lished in the Avierican Museum Novitiates and in the bulletins 

 of the Natural History Society of Maryland. In these pages 

 instead have been transmitted some of the non-technical, and 

 perhaps more human, sensations and happenings which have 

 no place in a biological treatise. 



Grateful acknowledgment is made to the Editors of the Bal- 

 timore Sunday Sun for permission to use portions of the chap- 

 ters on "The Great Reef," "Creatures of the Night," and 

 "Quest of the Firebirds" which had previously appeared in 

 that publication. Also, a large portion of "The Edge of the 

 Edge of the World" is here republished by the kindness of the 

 Editor of Natural History Magazine. 



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