WORTHINGTON : ORNITHOLOGY OF BAHAMA ISLANDS. 401 



magistrates for distrilnition among the neecl\', ostcnsil)ly as a loan, 

 but I was informed that there was little iirohahility of re|)ayment. 

 Efforts to secure some fresh proxisions iiere met with practically 

 no success. 



Our next stop was Bird Rock Lighl, which was reached at three 

 P.M. the same day (January ,^o). Mail and cargo were landed in a 

 hea\y wind and sea, the small boat being anchored just on the edge 

 of the breakers, and the packages swung to land by means of a long 

 derrick on the shore. The seamanship, strength, and agility exhibited 

 by the boatmen throughout these islands is truly marvelous. Another 

 stop was made at Crooked Island, where we were detained until after 

 dark, and where we secured some delicious oranges from two pas- 

 sengers who come on board. The wind being in the wrong direction 

 for us to land at the usual anchorage in front of the settlement at 

 Fortune Island, we kept on around the south end of the island, and 

 anchored in smooth water at nine P.M., remaining there over Sunday, 

 January 31. We had a welcome addition to our bill of fare in the 

 shape of fresh fish — margate-fish, grunts, hind- and squirrel-fish — 

 which the crew caught with hand-lines during the night. We left 

 Fortune Island about noon on February i, with fair weather and a 

 stiff northeast breeze, and sighted the high hills on the south end of 

 Acklin Island, and Castle Island Lighthouse at two-thirty, arriving 

 at the latter some two hours later, hauling in a large barracuta on 

 the trolling line. Here the lightkeeper's wife and daughter were put 

 ashore with difficulty, as the wind was blowing half a gale and heavy 

 seas were running, and we then bore away on our course for Great 

 Inagua, on the last, longest, and roughest leg of our outward voyage 

 With a reefed mainsail, the " Estrella" fairly flew up the hills and down 

 the valleys of the long high seas, and the man at the wheel had a 

 strenuous time to keep her straight on the course. Dawn of February 

 2 found us only about five miles off the low-lying shores of Great 

 Inagua, and we dropped anchor in the open roadstead in front of 

 Mathewtown (there being no harbor) at eight o'clock. 



Upon going ashore we met Mr. Charles Sargent, U. S. Consul, also 

 Mr. F. H. Boucher, who had a turtle- and fish-breeding plant at 

 Alfred Sound, on the north side of the island. As it was said to be a 

 good locality for our purpose, we arranged to move up there with our 

 outfit, which was transferred to Mr. Boucher's small auxiliary sloop 

 "Tortuga," and we got away at eleven o'clock the next day. Rough 



