EASTERN PACIFIC EXPEDITION 439 



tion resolved itself into the combination of scientific 

 review and yachting cruise. 



The yacht's track is not shown on the chart, for it 

 covers much the same ground as the second cruise of 

 the Blake : along the Windward Islands to Grenada and 

 back to the south of Porto Rico and Haiti, around the 

 east end of Cuba and through the Old Bahama Channel. 



TO MRS. LOUIS AGASSIZ 



On Board the Virginia, 

 Roseau, Dominica, March 5, 1907. 



I have not given any signs of life for quite a while, 

 though I have cabled from every island to Dolph and I 

 presume you heard of my progress. We have had excel- 

 lent passages thus far, though the boat being small she 

 is pretty brisk in her movements, and we have all at 

 different times succumbed to her motion. I had forgot- 

 ten how beautiful the islands were, for when I was here 

 in '78 the interest in the deep-sea dredging was my 

 first care and land interests were relegated to the rear. 

 Now it is the reverse. Some of the days we spent going 

 round Montserrat, St. Kitt's, and specially Guadeloupe 

 and Dominica were within reach of beautiful landscape, 

 ever-changing mountain scenes and superb vegetation. 

 Geologically the country is very interesting, and I am 

 checking to a great extent the work of one of my assist- 

 ants who has been here in past years, and just sent in his 

 Report in time for me to read it before starting. A Mr. 

 Spencer has also written a good deal on the subject, but 

 he had preconceived ideas which warped his views of all 

 he looked at. I have never been on an expedition in such 

 a princely way. Comfort does not express the state of 

 things existing on the Virginia. There is everything 



