Mr. 0. Salvin on the Sea-birds of British Honduras. 373 



coast, and wherever else I might want to go. We were to be 

 away about a fortnight, part of which time was to be spent 

 on one of the islands on Glover's Reef, where Sam's father 

 lived, owning the cocoa-nuts that grew there. Sam found em- 

 ployment for his schooner in carrying these nuts to Belize. 

 Their value varies : at the time of my visit they were worth 

 11 dollars per 1000. They are usually exported in the maho- 

 gany-vessels, being packed in the vacant spaces between the logs. 



I was fortunate in securing the companionship of an American 

 gentleman, Mr. R., then resident in Belize, who joined the ex- 

 pedition, being desirous of initiation in the mysteries of bird- 

 skinning. We had to lay in a small stock of pi-ovisions, as fish 

 and cocoa-nuts are all that the Cays produce ; this done, we went 

 on board on the afternoon of the 7th of May, and set sail. 



Leaving the ' Mary Ann ' to make her way with a strong 

 easterly sea breeze towards English Cay, it would be as well to 

 note the positions and forms of the coral-reefs which line the 

 coast. The main features of these reefs are as follows. The 

 Barrier Reef extends along the shore from Ambergris Cay to 

 Ranguana Cay, its most southern point ; this last Cay is twenty- 

 five miles from the coast, so that the reef, instead of running 

 more or less parallel to the shore, forms an angle with it, en- 

 closing a long lagoon, which, as well as the reef itself, is studded 

 with numerous groups of Cays. Nearly due east of Belize, 

 outside the Barrier Reef, and separated from it by a deep channel, 

 lies the atol Turneff, within the encircling reef of which several 

 lagoons are included. Eastward of Turnefi", and fifteen miles 

 from it, is another atol — Lighthouse Reef, so called from the 

 lighthouse on Half-moon Cay, one of a group of four Cays at 

 its southern end, the names of the other three being Hat Cay, 

 Long Cay, and Saddle Cay : this last is within the atol. The 

 whole gi'oup is also called Southern Four Cays, two more Cays 

 at its northern extremity being distinguished as Northern Two 

 Cays. Half-moon Cay is the pilot-station. 



A third detached atol lies twenty miles to the southward of 

 Lighthouse Reef, on the eastern margin of which four Cays 

 are situated, viz. Long Cay, Middle Cay, S.W. Cay, and S.W. 

 of all Cay. The rest of the reef consists of a line of breakers. 



