330 Wisconsi)!, Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 



and the country is in the nature of a table land to the base of 

 the main crater at about 2,200 ft. elevation. The sides of this 

 crater are steep and the top has an elevation of 2,850 ft. To the 

 south and southwest of the main crater there are deep valleys 

 in between other craters and hills. The whole of the south side 

 of the island is steep, above 900 ft. elevation, for several miles 

 east of James Bay. Below this elevation, however, the slope is 

 more gradual and the country is covered with recent flows of 

 lava, the most of which has probably come from one or more of 

 the small lateral craters around 900 ft. elevation. The lava 

 fields are comparatively smooth near the shore, but higher up 

 they become rough, and in places the lava has cooled enclosing 

 gas bubbles with only a thin shell of lava above, through which 

 one breaks in walking. 



The region around Sugarloaf mountain, towards the south- 

 west side of the island, is covered with tufaceous deposits, which 

 have probably come from the tufa craters in this vicinity. One 

 of the smaller tufa craters, encloses a salt water lake, on the bot- 

 tom of which there is a layer of apparently nearly pure salt sev- 

 eral inches in thickness. The people from the inhabited islands 

 used to come here for their supplies of salt many years ago. 



Except on the recent lava and on the steeper sides of the 

 mountain, there is a considerable amount of soil to be found all 

 over this part of the island. The soil is composed of disinte- 

 grated lava, which on the higher parts is mixed with vegetable 

 mold. No springs occur on this island but there are a few small 

 stream beds in the upper region, Avhich appeared to have con- 

 tained water at some time, as there were water-worn stones and 

 pebbles in them. 



There are but few halophytic plants on the sand beaches around 

 James Bay. Batis maritima occurs in a few places and there is a 

 considerable growth of bushes of Conocarpus erectus bordering 

 the shore. A heavy growth of bushes and small trees surrounds 

 the salt-water lake, just back of the beach, which consists of the 

 following species : Avieennia officinalis, Cryptocarpus pyriformis, 

 Discaria pauciflora, and Maytenus obovata. The remainder of 

 the sandy area, at the base of the mountain, is covered with open 

 woodland made up largely of trees of Bursera graveolens, and 

 Erythrina velutina, the last of which were in blossom when we 

 visited this place in December. There are also open grassy areas 

 in the woodland covered mostly with Setaria setosa. bushes of 



