TRIP TO THE BAHAMAS 5 



at noon of the loth we turned south and made for Great Sale Cay. 

 We might add that on the sand flats we had good sport from our 

 small boat spearing the large " sting-a-rees," giant skate-like crea- 

 tures. The way in Avhich they rushed the l»oat off, often rising 

 from the water and fla])])ing their great wing-Uke tins, added much 

 to the excitement. When finally killed and hoisted aboard the 

 schooner they were useful as shark bait. 



At Great Sale Cay we met several boats, the last of the sponging 

 schooners, homeward bound. All the crews boarded us, asking what 

 we were doing and where we were going. Perhaps it Avas their ad- 

 vice that made our crew so shy of aj)proaching the shore of Great 

 Bahama; for the following morning after our visitors had left, the 

 ca])tain and mate asked us to omit this stage of our trij). We in- 

 sisted, however, and after some excitement incidental to the har- 

 pooning of a large leo})ard shark ( Galeocerdo tigrinum) from our 

 deck, set sail for an anchorage some distance off Hiding Point, 

 " Grand Bah'ma." The l)ottom all about here is very hard and the 

 on-shore winds roll up heavy seas, so that we dared not run within 

 several miles of the outlying flats. Only one of our crew had ever 

 been here before ; for this shore, aside from its other unpleasant 

 features, is not a ])rotitable sponging ground. From our anchorage it 

 was a matter of scA'eral liours of alternately sailing and hauling our 

 small l)oats over series of shoals and mud Hats, before reaching shore. 

 Even here a long stretch of excessively difficult walking lay between 

 us and tree growth. Tlie entire surface of the ground, except where 

 it was covered with a layer of tine, sticky mud from an inch to sev- 

 eral feet in depth, was curiously eroded, and everywhere sharp ])oints 

 of limestone rock and ridges keen and hard as knife blades rendered 

 our progress slow and painful. Once among the trees, conditions 

 were even more unfavoral)le for an extended survey of the land, 

 since the ground was everywhere covered with a thick tangle per- 

 haps six feet high of the thorniest of xerophytes. 



After leaving Great Bahama, where we had been al)le to spend 

 but a couple of days, we retraced our course, sto])ping only at Marsh 

 Harbor, IIo])etown, and Sweeting's Village. This return passage 

 was rendered more difficult by the increasing number of squalls, 

 now of daily occurrence, and the intervening periods of calm 

 weather. Moreover, our stores had become very low, as unfore- 

 seen delays prevented our replenishing them at Hopetown, about 

 the only place where food could be obtained. 



