SMITHSONIAN EXPLORATIONS, I93O 6l 



of a tropical moon, passed into the Windward Passage between Cuba 

 and Haiti, and then on March 13 anchored in the harbor at Port- 

 au-Prince. 



After obtaining the necessary permits for scientific collecting 

 through the kind offices of Gen. J. H. Russell, American High Com- 

 missioner, and others, the Esperansa with Col. and Airs. Coyle and 

 Lieut. Wirkus added to the party, crossed to Gonave Island, working 

 first at Petite Gonave, where the anchor was dropped in crystal clear 

 water in which schools of brilliantly colored fish swam among beauti- 

 ful coral formations. 



Petite Gonave, east of La Gonave Island, has an area of approxi- 

 mately 15 acres, most of which is of a very sharply eroded limestone 

 formation, with the center a mangrove swamp. Dozens of rhinoceros 

 iguanas sunned themselves on the rocks, and when approached bobbed 

 their heads up and down, swelling their throats like the Anolis before 

 disappearing clumsily in the crevices of the rocks. 



Gonave Island proper, more than 30 miles long and from 7 to 8 

 miles wide at the widest point, in general is arid and open, rising in 

 hills like those of Haiti opposite. Collections were made at the western 

 end and at Anse-a-Galets, the headquarters of the Gendarmerie for 

 the island. Native dances executed to the barbaric rhythm of wooden 

 drums with heads of hide stretched while green, and the weird and 

 mournful accompaniment of bamboo flutes added to the interest of the 

 work. 



On March 23 the party returned to Port-au-Prince for supplies and 

 then, reduced to the original personnel, sailed for the Cayemite Islands 

 on the northern coast of the southern peninsula. 



En route they anchored for a time in Baraderes Bay. After show- 

 ing credentials to the chief of the section at Grand Boucan, the collec- 

 tors crossed Baraderes Bay in one of the small boats to Mapou to 

 explore two caves for extinct animal bones. The first one was small 

 and very dry, and several tests there produced nothing. A barn owl 

 was shot, and on a shelf some human remains were found. The other 

 proved to be equally barren ; it was a deep cave with water seeping 

 through the ceiling, the moisture destroying any bones that might have 

 been preserved there. Many birds were seen in the banana, cocoanut.. 

 and mango trees. 



An expedition on horseback up the fertile valley of Petite Trou de 

 Nippes, grown with royal and cocoanut palms, high bush cotton, 

 bananas and coffee, with the chief of the section as guide led to an- 

 other very large cave containing a pool of crystal-clear water, which 

 was said to have been used by natives as a place of worship. Birds, 



