98 SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



end of the southeast Caicos group. We then crossed the Caicos Bank 

 and devoted August 3 and 4 to an exploration of the cays off the 

 south coast of Providentiales and of West Caicos, all of which yielded 

 rich collections. August 5 we crossed the deep channel between west 

 Caicos and Little Inagua, and the remainder of this day and part of 

 the next were spent in a search for the mollusks which it harbors. 



On the afternoon of August 6 we headed for Great Inagua Island, 

 which is by far the largest of the southern Bahamas. It has a length 

 of almost 45 miles in a southwest by a northwesterly direction, and a 

 north by south width of about 18 miles in its largest diameter. In 

 reality it is another atoll which has emerged from the sea. Its high- 

 est hill is said to be 132 feet. Its shores slope precipitously into the 

 great depths of the sea on all sides. This island, as its wonderful 

 molluscan fauna indicates, in reality represents a host of cays fused 

 by elevation. We explored not only the ocean rim in our boat, but 

 also the interior of the island, in a Ford truck. Inagua proved by far 

 the richest of all the Bahamas in diversity of molluscan fauna. 



The barometer indicating fine weather, we put to sea at 4 p. m. on 

 August 10 from Matthewstown for our naval station at Guantanamo, 

 southeastern Cuba, a distance of some 120 miles. We selected a night 

 run for its calmer sea. Favorable winds enabled us to sight the Cape 

 Macy light in eastern Cuba a little after 10 o'clock, and we rounded 

 the Cape at 2:30 in the morning of the nth of August, reaching 

 Guantanamo about 1 130 in the afternoon. 



The Naval authorities, at my request, examined the Island Home 

 and pronounced her unseaworthy and recommended her abandon- 

 ment until suitable repairs could be made. Since it was impossible to 

 obtain the necessary repairs for some weeks at the Station, other ves- 

 sels being on the ways, I informed the owners in Miami of the fact 

 and set about finding another suitable vessel in Cuban waters. 



The Jose Enrique, a 35-ton sailing bark, equipped with a 22 H. P. 

 gasoline motor, carrying a complement of five men, was finally chart- 

 ered at Santiago, Cuba, and after fueling at the Naval base we set sail 

 for Santiago. On August 28 we again set sail westward, stopping at 

 convenient intervals along the south coast of Cuba and exploring the 

 many low keys in the embayment between Cabo Cruz and Bretton 

 Cay, the westernmost of that labyrinth of keys in that part of Cuba, 

 which we reached September 10. While these keys did not yield an 

 enormous catch, many of them proving entirely barren of land mol- 

 lusks, the specimens obtained nevertheless furnished information very 

 desirable to our studies. 



