282 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 



Cflwley Bay. 



Cowley Bay is located on the east side of the island near its 

 center. The shores around the bay and along the adjacent coast 

 north of here, are composed of low cliffs of pumice and occa- 

 sional pebble and sand beaches. A plain, covered with partly 

 disintegrated pumice, extends inland from the shore to the base 

 of the mountain, a distance of about half a mile. The east side 

 of the mountain rises rather steeply to 2,000 ft., and is covered 

 to this elevation with partly disintegrated pumice, similar to 

 that on the plain below. Occasional ridges of lava protrude 

 through the pumice in places so it is likely that these deposits 

 are not very thick. The slope is more gradual above 2,000 ft. 

 and continues so to within a few hundred feet of the rim of the 

 crater. The sides of the crater's rim are quite steep. Apparent- 

 ly all of the mountain side above an elevation of 2,000 ft. is cov- 

 ered with basaltic lava which has become partly broken down in- 

 to soil through which lava boulders project forming a rather 

 rough surface in most places. The side of the mountain, a short 

 distance south of the bay, is covered with deposits of recent lava 

 to a considerable elevation. The west side of the mountain was 

 not visited, but it was noticed while sailing past this side of the 

 island, that the vegetation was quite heavy here so it is likely 

 that this side of the mountain is covered with lava and not pum- 

 ice. 



There are but few halophytic plants in this vicinity, possibly 

 due to the steep and unstable nature of the shores. A few 

 bushes of Laguucularia racemosa were noticed, and a small grove 

 of trees of Rhizophora Mangle were noticed a mile or two fur- 

 ther south. 



The region near the shore is almost bare of vegetation in many 

 places, and with the exception of the more recent beds of lava 

 on some of the other islands, it is the most sterile place botani- 

 cally that we visited. What little vegetation there is here is 

 very much scattered and consists largely of low Bursera and 

 Croton bushes, and bushes of Cordia lutea, Discaria pauciflora, 

 Dodonaea viscosa, Lipochaeta laricifolia, Maytenus obovata and 

 Scalesia gummifera, all of which are rather stunted except when 

 they occur in protected places. We visited this place during the 

 dry season but it is not likely that conditions would be much, 

 more inviting during the rainy season, because very few remains 

 of annual plants were found. 



