ALEXANDER AGASSIZ MAYER. 463 



In 1898 and 1904 he describes the deep-sea echini found off Panama, 

 this being his last paper upon the results of the explorations of 

 1891. The final report is beautifully illustrated with drawings 

 made by A. M. Westergren. 



In the autumn of 1892 his friend, Mr, John M. Forbes, offered to 

 place at his disposal his steam yacht Wild Duck, a seaworthy little 

 vessel 127 feet long upon the water line; and from January until 

 April, 1892, he cruised in this yacht, wandering for more than 4,500 

 miles among the Bahamas and off the Cuban coast, engaging in the 

 study of the part which corals have played in the formation of these 

 islands. On this and all subsequent expeditions he was accompanied 

 by his son Maximilian, who was his father's constant companion and 

 friend, and who served as his photographer. The results of this 

 voyage were published in 1894 in the " Bulletin " of the Museum of 

 Comparative Zoology. 



He concludes that the Bahama Islands are composed of reolian 

 rock, being formed of wind-blown fragments of shells and other 

 limestone particles of animal origin which, after being blown up- 

 ward above sea level, have been agglutinated into rock by the agency 

 of rain water. After being thus built up the islands subsided about 

 300 feet, and are now much smaller than they originally were, for 

 the sea and atmospheric agencies have eroded them greatly. The 

 present-day corals form a mere veneer over this submerged seolian 

 rock and do not play a prominent part in forming the islands. The 

 so-called " lagoons " of the Bahamas are merely parts of the interior 

 of the islands which have been dissolved out under atmospheric 

 agencies, rain, etc., and have been deepened by the action of the sea 

 after the ocean waiter entered them. Hogsty Atoll he would regard 

 as a plateau of submerged seolian rock surrounded by a rim which 

 does not reach the surface and is protected from marine erosion by 

 a coating of modern corals. 



Five superimposed limestone terraces are seen at Cape Maysi and 

 can be traced for a considerable distance along the Cuban coast. The 

 lowermost of these terraces is raised only about 20 feet above sea 

 level and is clearly an elevated coral reef, but the older and higher 

 terraces he is inclined to regard as being of limestone covered only by 

 a mere veneer of corals or containing only a few scattered coral heads 

 and not true elevated coral reefs. 



The peculiar flask-shaped harbors of Cuba with their narrow en- 

 trances and broad lagoons interested him greatly, and he decided that 

 when the land was elevated these depressions had been leached out in 

 the limestone by the action of streams in the drainage areas of the val- 

 leys, and when the land afterwards sank the broad valleys were 

 submerged, with only a deep narrow entrance connecting them with 



