SMITHSONIAN EXPLORATIONS, I93O 63 



reptiles, and mollusks were collected, and the natives captured ioo 

 live lizards for exhibition in the National Zoological Park in Wash- 

 ington. 



Grand Cayemite, the next stop, is a rather large island, rough and 

 rocky, with large patches of Madame Michel grass. Parrots and white- 

 winged doves were abundant. More detailed work was done on Petite 

 Cayemite, little or no collecting having been done there previously. 

 Petite Cayemite is a small island of roughly eroded limestone covered 

 with Madame Michel grass, which grows densely in some sections. 

 Travel was difficult, but the collectors were persistent, securing excel- 

 lent series of birds and reptiles, with some fine specimens of fish and 

 crustaceans. 



On April 19 the Esperanza left for lie a Vache, stopping for mail 

 at Jeremie, an old French town, and then sailed west along the coast 

 to Dame Marie. A rough sea forced the yacht to anchor for two days 

 in Bigie Bay, a small indentation on the extreme western end of the 

 peninsula. Fish, crustaceans, and other aquatic creatures were col- 

 lected at night by lowering a light over the side of the boat, attract- 

 ing hundreds to the surface where they were easily secured with a net. 



After a brief lay-over at Aux Cayes for supplies, the Esperanza 

 anchored in Feret Bay, He a Vache Island, on April 27. This island 

 is approximately 8 miles long and 4 miles wide. Feret Bay is on the 

 west end, surrounded by sandy beaches, behind which large cocoanut 

 palms, cashew, and mango trees grow. The natives as a whole are 

 much healthier looking than the average Haitian of other regions and 

 are well-to-do through their crops of bananas, sugar cane, and sweet 

 potatoes as well as their cattle. Crocodiles were obtained from one 

 of the two lagoons on the western end of the island ; lizards, boas and 

 vine snakes were very common ; and over one hundred birds were 

 obtained. The island had previously been unknown zoologically. 



Returning to Bigie Bay, under favorable weather conditions, the 

 Esperanza sailed 30 miles west to Navassa, an island seldom visited 

 by naturalists, or for that matter by others, except for the lighthouse 

 tender that comes to it periodically. Navassa is a rocky mass about 

 ii miles long, a 20-foot cliff around its entire shoreline making it 

 inaccessible except in Lulu Bay, a small indentation in the rocky wall 

 where there is a steel ladder leading down to the water. Because it 

 is exposed to the open sea, this little bay is unsafe for ships except in 

 the quiet seas of the early morning. The Esperanza anchored there 

 in the calm of the morning of May 10. The island itself is uninhabited, 

 and is covered with low trees and thorny bushes. The rough, eroded 



