I04 Natural History Bulletin. 



threatening clouds indicated squall}- weather. The pilot who 

 had so efficiently brought us into our anchorage was on hand 

 to take us out again. He brought along two of his own sail- 

 ors, having doubtless a vivid recollection of his former un- 

 pleasant experience while attempting to have Spanish orders 

 understood by an American crew. 



The channel is a dangerous one, apparently more so than 

 is indicated by the chart, and I would not advise any future 

 expedition to attempt it. It will be remembered that it was 

 in the effort to get into Bahia Honda that the "Blake" was 

 run aground, and lost several weeks of most valuable time. 

 Those present on that occasion seem to have a distinct im- 

 pression that the misfortune was by no means accidental. 



The Captain of the Port had advised us that he would come 

 aboard to give us our clearance or dismissal, there being no 

 custom-house at Bahia Honda, but finally sent word that we 

 could drop down to the mouth of the harbor and there await 

 the necessary papers. While thus detained, a boat was sent 

 ashore for the purpose of securing some turtles from the 

 fishermen who lived in a little hamlet near the harbor mouth. 

 The turtles, loggerhead and green turtles, were kept in a small 

 enclosure surrounded by a paling or fence. When one was 

 wanted it was killed by cutting its throat with an ax. The 

 boat returned with a fine specimen of each species, and the 

 bleached skull of a loggerhead, which Mr. Wickham picked 

 up on the beach. The turtles had been purchased or rather 

 traded, for a half-barrel of corned beef which had become a 

 little too pronounced in flavor to suit the lowans, but seemed 

 just to the taste of the Cuban fishermen, to whom beef in any 

 form is a rarity and a luxur}-. The green turtle was found to 

 be a female, with eggs in all stages of development from little 

 yellow spheres no larger than peas to fully matured eggs 

 with the leathery white membrane. There were such a quan- 

 tity that we were surfeited with them before they were all 

 eaten. The meat of the green turtle is excellent, and the 

 amount furnished by the large specimen secured at this time 

 was amazing. It can be cooked in various ways, and proved a 



