CARIBBEAN EXPEDITION, 1956 — SCHMITT 459 



trip. A steep, sandy beach provided an underwater grandstand from 

 which to view the activities of reef fishes about the bases of colonies 

 of Acropora palmata. While we were there two native fishermen, 

 with spear guns and goggles, wended their way across the flat tops of 

 these coral growths to the outer edge of the reef a couple of hundred 

 yards away as confidently as a woodsman might follow a forest trail. 



As the long haul to Tortola would take us over the Saba BanU, 

 we had planned a few dredge hauls on it. For us fortunately the 

 great underwater plateau in some places reaches to within 6 to 9 

 fathoms of the surface. The ground fishing attempted by the crew 

 drew a blank for reasons unknown to us, but the dredging exceeded 

 all expectations — it was the best of the cruise. 



Farther along and much nearer Tortola, we stopped briefly on 

 Virgin Gorda to work over another rich littoral fauna in Gorda Sound, 

 and to permit Drs. Clarke and Smith to ascend Virgin Peak (1,379 

 feet). They found no part of this hill with its original vegetation 

 cover, but nevertheless the second-growth thickets and woods dis- 

 closed botanical and entomological components of considerable inter- 

 est. A further stop was made near the western extremity of Virgin 

 Gorda to visit the locally famous "Baths." These are veritable indoor 

 pools open to the sea but sheltered in "chambers" formed by the most 

 gigantic boulders any of us had ever seen. Tortola is another of 

 those islands, like Barbuda, that few people ever visit unless they 

 have special business there. Here the last mountain, Mount Sage, 

 1,780 feet high, was climbed by Clarke on his last hunt for insects 

 on this expedition. 



It is a small world after all. Mr. May, in 1947, was the proud 

 owner of a very fine yacht, the Caribee, which he later sold, but this 

 very day of April 18, as we were bowling along with a fair breeze 

 through the beautiful, blue, island-studded water, Sir Francis Drake 

 Channel, bound for St. Croix, Mr. May, who was watching sails on 

 the horizon, exclaimed, "There's the Carthee!" "How do you know ?" 

 "I sailed her too long not to know the cut of her sails anywhere." It 

 was the Caribee! In response to a radiotelephone request the present 

 owner kindly brought her over so that we might photograph her under 

 full sail. A once-in-a-lifetime happenstance — our boat being there 

 and for a brief spell sailing the same course in the same direction. 



It was with sincere regret that we had to pass up St. Thomas and 

 St. John of the American Virgin Islands, but time was running out, 

 as did our charter of the Freelance, too, in Christiansted, St. Croix, on 

 April 19, 1956. Captain Nicholson most kindly granted us several 

 days' grace to get our specimens packed as the expeditionary party 

 scattered. Mr. May enplaned for Puerto Rico and Drs. Clarke and 

 Smith for the States and the Museum, to which Dr. Chace and I were 



