BAHAMAN TRIP 19 



more shy. The southern end of the cay was lower than the other, 

 being about six feet above the water. The surface was exceedingly 

 rough, the rock being worn away so as to leave vertical, more or less 

 cylindrical, columns varying from a few inches to over a foot in height. 



Monday, June 9. Left about 7 a.m. and sailed up the creek 

 with a southeast wind. The course of the creek is first through the 

 coppet and then enters the pines. It widens once or twice and seven 

 or eight miles from its mouth spreads out into a lake-like expansion, 

 from three to five miles wide, containing small cays and mangroves. 

 We sailed to the head of navigation and then poled in the small boat 

 until we reached fresh water. Fresh Creek has two or three arms and 

 must penetrate twelve or fifteen miles into the interior. In very wet 

 seasons there is said to be water communication with Wide Opening 

 and the lakes on the west side. We spent a couple of weeks at this 

 settlement, finding the flora more varied than farther north. The 

 thermometer ranged between 82 and 84. The mosquitoes were very 

 troublesome for the first time. 



June 15. Left Fresh Creek. Continuing our course south, we 

 passed High Cay and numerous smaller cays, finally reaching Bearing 

 Point (called Salvador Point on the charts) at the entrance to the 

 Northern Bight about five in the evening. Here the ridge seemed very 

 high, apparently the highest land on the island. 



June 16. The next morning walked to a high point from which a 

 good view was obtained. It was about seventy or eighty feet high, and 

 one could look westward across the bight to the horizon, where a few 

 cays could be seen. The bight is three or four, in some places five, 

 miles from the northern shore to the cays that are scattered through 

 it. One of the largest of these is Wood Cay. The coppet at Bearing 

 Point has pines beyond it, and there are pines on some of the cays in 

 the bight. Going on board again, our next landing was at Cormorant 

 Cay, a small cay, perhaps a hundred yards long by forty or fifty wide. 

 Many cormorants were nesting here, and both old and young birds 

 were numerous. Some of the latter were still in the nests, but the 

 majority were able to walk. The little ones opened their mouths and 

 darted at my finger. Later we entered what the men called Loggerhead 

 Creek, one of the channels of the North Bight, and sailing through this 

 to the west side, made north and reached Purser Point at evening. 

 This point is near the southern side of what is called the Wide Opening* 



