Narrative of Bahama Expedition. 183 



the night. A boat was sent to take olf a lot of coral, princi- 

 pally Madrefora palmata Linn., which had been left to bleach 

 about ten days before on a little sand key near the Eastern Dry 

 Rocks. The storm of the preceding Saturda}^ had raised a 

 sea, which broke clear over the little islet, and buried most of 

 the coral under the sand. We found that many of the speci- 

 mens were uninjured and beautifully bleached. One in par- 

 ticular was a perfectly s^'mmetrical corallum of ]\I. j)ahnata. 

 with numerous broad fronds rising in whorls one above 

 another. This superb but fragile specimen was the prize 

 cabinet coral of the whole collection, and the object of much 

 solicitude. We hardly dared hope to succeed in getting it to 

 Iowa City intact, but our care was rewarded b}- success, and 

 the specimen is now in the museum, a flawless, symmetrical 

 type of what is really one of the most beautiful of all West 

 Indian corals, although the fragments usually exhibited in our 

 museums would fail to indicate any grace or beauty. The 

 '•long boat," as we called the largest ship's boat, originally 

 built for the navy, was placed on the deck and braced right 

 side up on an even keel. It was then filled with the branch- 

 ing corals, which were thus comparatively safe and in an 

 excellent place to complete the bleaching process. The plug 

 was taken out of the boat, and the corals drenched with salt 

 water several times a day, and then exposed to the full force 

 of the sun. 



On Monday, July 3rd, light head-winds were encountered, 

 but some progress was made with the aid of the Gulf Stream, 

 which we were now crossing for the third time. Had a calm 

 set in, we would doubtless have been carried through the 

 Florida Straits to the north of the Island of Abaco. Most of 

 this day was spent in packing that part of the coral which was 

 fairly well bleached. Several of the largest heads of Madrc- 

 pora were carefully wound with strands of Italian hemp rope, 

 so that each branch was fully supported by several others. 

 The specimens were then crated separately, each being slung 

 in its crate by ropes so that it could not touch the wood at 

 any point. This method had the further advantage of furnish- 



