396 Annals of the Carnegie Museum. 



day I proceeded to Eau Gallie, on the Indian River, where I was 

 joined by Mr. Clark Irwin, who was to be my assistant on the trip. 

 Here I remained until December 17, doing a little collecting in the 

 neighborhood, going thence to Miami, from which bustling and fast- 

 growing little city schooners ply to the Bahamas at more or less 

 regular intervals. Here we found the staunch schooner "Fearless," 

 a seaworthy-looking vessel of about fifty tons, moored at a wharf 

 in the mouth of the Miami River, and proudly flying the British flag. 

 She was taking in a cargo of lumber, and was due to sail the following 

 Sunday, December 20, so we engaged passage with Captain Kemp 

 at once, and found that there were some twenty-odd other passengers 

 on the list, mainly colored laborers returning from Florida to their 

 homes in the Bahamas. We went on board with our baggage on 

 Sunday morning, and were assigned to berths in the cabin, and were 

 soon acquainted with the crew — all native Bahamans, part white and 

 part colored. 



Casting ofT at nine-thirty in the morning, our voyage to the Bahamas 

 was really begun, but it did not proceed very far, as the '.'Fearless" 

 was so deeply laden that she caught on the coral rock bottom of the 

 river, and notwithstanding the best efforts of a small tug to pull her 

 off, remained fast until the rising tide floated her at four in the after- 

 noon, when we made another and successful start, and reached Bis- 

 cayne Bay just at sunset. The wind was light, but did not die out 

 completely until we had reached the lower end of Biscay ne Key, 

 where we came to anchor for the night. The next morning we got 

 under way at eight o'clock, with a light head wind, and stood off 

 to the edge of the Gulf Stream and back several times, but the wind 

 still kept ahead, and was so light that the captain did not think it 

 prudent to attempt crossing, as the rapid current would carry us 

 northward far out of our course, so we ran in back of Fowey Rocks 

 Light and anchored for the night. The next morning, December 22, 

 the wind having hauled in our favor, we stood across for the Biminis, 

 sighting land from aloft at three o'clock, while a half-hour later North 

 Bimini Island was in sight from the deck. We passed just north of 

 Moselle Bank, and not far from a large four-masted schooner recently 

 wre(^ked there. Darkness overtook us while still sailing on our 

 easterly course, and that night a heavy "norther" came down upon 

 us. When we came on deck the next morning we found the " Fearless" 

 close-reefed, and wallowing through heavy seas. Berry Islands were 



