1890. | NEW: YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 1t 
Ocean- Holes. 
Near the caves at Nicols Town was a hole known as the 
** Ocean-Hole.” It was about one hundred feet in diameter and 
perhaps forty feet in depth, and contained a pool of brackish 
water. In one place the wall had been excavated so as to form 
asmall cave, while the rest was quite steep and covered with 
trees and large blocks of coral rock. In one place was a very 
marked unconformability in the rock, the seeming strata below 
lying at an angle of about thirty degrees, while above the layers 
were horizontal. This was probably only an unusual arrange- 
ment of the Aolian formation; but in the Queen’s Staircase, 
where an unusually fine section is exposed, the layers lie at dif- 
ferent angles, but are wedged in between each other, as it were, 
and no such sharp unconformability as that above described is 
to be seen. 
The name ‘‘ ocean-hole ” is alsé applied by the natives of An- 
dros to deep holes wnder the water. Some of these are remark- 
able. The first that I saw was near Mangrove Cay. Here, 
close ‘to the shore, was a nearly circular hole at least 100 feet in 
diameter, and in which the water was said to be over 18 fathoms 
(104 feet) in depth. I did not have an opportunity of sounding 
it, but the dark blue color of the water told its own story. 
While sailing up Fresh Creek, Andros, we came to another 
ocean-hole, which I examined. It was about ten miles from 
the mouth of the creek, close to the northern bank, and about 
one hundred feet in diameter. From the shore the water for a 
distance of about fifteen feet was two feet in depth, and then 
suddenly deepened to eighteen feet over a projecting ledge. 
Sounding across the hole did not show a greater depth. The 
bottom of the hole was of soft coral mud. The bottom of the 
creek surrounding the hole was covered with about two feet of 
water, and in some places gradually sloped into the hole. Still 
farther up the creek another hole was seen, but was not exam- 
ined. The most remarkable ocean-hole that I saw was one near 
Grassy Creek, near the southern end of the east side of Andros. 
The diameter was about one hundred and fifty feet, and the 
shore itself formed one edge of the hole. The sides were of sand 
at its angle of repose for a depth of about six or seven feet be- 
low, and resting on an overhanging ledge of rock. Where the 
tide had fallen it left the hole surrounded by at least a quarter- 
mile of sand flat on the ocean side, while, as stated above, the 
shore formed the rest of the boundary. This hole I sounded 
with all the line I possessed, but at twenty fathoms the weight 
was cut off and I was unable to obtain another to continue the 
