1890.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 9 
sides were smooth. They contained the worm coral heads that 
had evidently been the means of making the holes. 
On the beach of the cays north of Nassau great blocks of 
coral rock are seen that have been dislodged by the waves, and 
in some places fresh fractures show where large fragments have 
been broken off. On the south side of the cays the erosion is 
different. Here the water is quiet and eats slowly under the 
rock, so that a projecting ledge is formed that marks the height 
of the tide. 
At some places on Andros, as at Fresh Creek and Nicols Town, 
the shore is undermined, and great slabs in places have fallen, 
thus making large cracks. Similar cracks are found inland 
higher above high-water mark, and have evidently been formed in 
the same manner as those on the shore. Where the edges of the 
crack were in contact they had been firmly cemented together, 
and at intervals along the line of the crack were numerous large 
holes that had evidently been worn out by the action of rain- 
water running over the edge. leading into these holes were 
channels almost as perfectly formed and rounded as a tin gutter. 
The erosion of the surface will impress every one that visits 
the Bahamas. Sharp, jagged points project so as to make walk- 
ing tiresome and annoying. Although there is some sand near 
the beach west of the Barracks at Nassau, there are no great 
moving masses such as Heilprin describes as being found in 
Bermuda.’ 
In some places, as on Goat Cay, near Fresh Creek, Andros, the 
surface is eroded in a peculiar and striking manner. ‘There the 
rock is worn so as to leave vertical cylindrical masses two or 
three feet high, some connected below or half-way up with each 
other, others separate. Their sides and tops are pitted and 
eroded, so they have evidently been affected by atmospheric 
agencies. On the ocean side of this cay the erosion from the ac- 
tion of the surf wasso exceedingly rapid, that the rock remained a 
light yellowish color instead of the dull or dark gray it commonly 
assumes. The form the rock here presented was even more 
striking than the cylindrical masses described above. It was 
worn into innumerable peaks and pinnacles like a miniature 
mountain range, the points and edges of the pyramidal projec- 
tions being sharp and clean. As we walked back from the edge 
of the cay, every gradation could be found between the miniature 
peaks and the cylindrical masses higher up. And I believe that 
the latter are what remains after the edges of the little peaks 
and pyramids have been slowly worn away by the action of 
atmospheric agencies ; for we have only to round off the points 
1 «* The Bermuda Islands,” p. 31. 
