202 Natural History Bulletin. 



world, as in that above, forms of beauty are strangely mingled 

 with repulsive and uncanny shapes. The cavities of the coral 

 fairly bristle with the cruel black spines of sea-urchins i^Dia- 

 dema setosum^, — spines seven inches long and sharp as needles. 

 Great spiny lobsters creep among the roots of the gorgonians, 

 and repulsive sea-spiders lurk in the recesses and among the 

 algte. 



Another more prosaic but still good collecting ground was 

 a flat bar which lay between the anchorage and the mainland 

 of Eleuthera to the east, and was nearly bare at low tide. 

 This proved a good place for mollusks, especially Pinna. 

 Here also were great quantities of sea-urchins, particularly 

 Hipponoc csculcnta A. Ag. The mainland of Eleuthera itself 

 proved an excellent collecting ground for the entomologists 

 and botanists. The ornithologists found that the birds were 

 much the same as those collected at ^^^ Island. On one 

 occasion a partv visited a cave some distance from the shore, 

 securing a number of interesting bats. 



The islanders themselves were good collectors, and we 

 availed ourselves of the opportunity to buv a number of the 

 more showy specimens, such as the king and queen conchs, 

 and nicely prepared specimens of Pentaccros rcticulatiis. which 

 these natives know how to preserve in excellent shape for cab- 

 inet specimens. The most enterprising dealers were from 

 the Current, a few miles to the west of Spanish Wells, and 

 they carried on a brisk trade with our party, succeeding 

 in selling prettv much all they brought to the schooner. We 

 found them sharp at bargaining, and they could apparently 

 spare anv amount of time in a transaction involving only a few 

 shillings. We soon ran out of change, and were forced 

 to abandon further negotiations, as it took but a short time to 

 use up all the silver and copper that we could secure from 

 store-keepers in the village. 



The collection drawn from these various sources grew to 

 be quite an imposing one before we left this localit}', and the 

 deck of the schooner was usually piled high with a miscel- 

 laneous mass of zo Jlogical and botanical specimens. 



