April 27, 1893J 



NATURE 



609 



southern end. We steamed out into Exuma Sound 

 through the Powell Channel and round the southern end 

 of Eleuthera to little San Salvador, and the north-west 

 end of Cat Island, where are the highest hills of the 

 Bahamas. We then skirted Cat Island along its western 

 face, rounded the southern extremity and made for Riding 

 Rocks on the Western side of Watling's Island. We cir- 

 cumnavigated Watling, passed over to Rum Cay, then to 

 northern part of Long Island, visiting Clarence Harbour ; 

 next we crossed to Fortune Island, and passed to the 

 east side near the northern end of the island on the 

 Crooked Island Bank. From there we crossed to Caicos 

 Bank, crossing that bank from French Cay to Long 

 Island, passed by Cockburn Harbour and ended our 

 eastern route at Turks Island ; from there we shaped our 

 course to Santiago de Cuba to coal and provision the 

 yacht. We were fortunate enough to strike Cape Maysi 

 a short time after daylight, and I thus had a capital 

 chance to observe the magnificent elevated terraces 

 (coral reefs) which skirt the whole of the southern shore 

 of Cuba from Cape Maysi to Cape Cruz and make so 

 prominent a part of the landscape as seen from the sea. 

 We were never more than three miles from shore and 

 had ample opportunity to trace the course of some of the 

 terraces as far as Santiago, and to note the great changes 

 in the aspect of the shores as we passed westward due to 

 the greater denudation and erosion of the limestone hills 

 and terraces to the west of Cape Maysi, which seems to 

 be the only point where five terraces are distinctly to be 

 seen. The height of the hills east of Pt. Caleta, where 

 the terraces are most clearly defined, I should estimate at 

 900 to 1000 feet ; though the hills behind the terraces, 

 which judging from their faces are also limestone, reach 

 a somewhat greater height, perhaps iiooto 1200 feet. 



After coaling at Santiago de Cuba we visited Inagua, 

 and next steamed to Hogstey Reef, a regular horseshoe- 

 shaped atoll with two small cays at the western entrance. 

 There we passed three days studying the atoll. This to 

 me was an entirely novel experience ; to be at anchor in 

 3 fathoms of water 45 miles from any land with water 900 

 fathoms within three miles outside, surrounded by a wall 

 of heavy breakers pounding upon the narrow annular 

 reef which sheltered us. I made some soundings in the 

 lagoon and on the slope of reef outside. From there we 

 returned to Crooked Island Bank to the westward of 

 which I also made some soundings to determine the 

 slope of the Bank. We next again visited Long Island, 

 taking in the southern and northern ends which I had 

 not examined. From there we passed to Great Exuma, 

 stopping at Great Exuma Harbour and sounding into 

 deep water on our way out to Conch Cut when we sailed 

 west crossing the Bank to Green Cay. From there we 

 made the southward face of New Providence, and before 

 going into Nassau Harbour made some trials in deep 

 water in the Tongue of the Ocean with the Tanner deep- 

 sea townet in 100 and 300 fathoms, depth being 700 

 fathoms — after which we returned to Nassau. I had on 

 board a Tanner sounding machine kindly loaned me for 

 this trip by Colonel McDonald of the Fish Commission, 

 and some deep-sea thermometers were also kindly sup- 

 plied by him and by Prof. Mendenhall, the superintendent 

 of the U.S. Coast Survey. I supplied myself with a 

 number of Tanner deep-sea townets and with a supply 

 of dredge and of townets and carried on board a Yale 

 and Towne patent winch for winding the wire rope which 

 I used in my dredging and towing in deep water. The 

 yacht was provided with a steam capstan and by increas- 

 ing its diameter with lagging we found no difficulty in 

 hauling in our wire rope at the rate of 8 min. to 100 

 fathoms. I carried 600 fathoms of steel wire dredging 

 rope with me of the same dimensions which I had used 

 on the Blake and which has also been adopted on the 

 Albatross. During our second cruise we steamed 

 from Nassau for Harvey Cay crossing the Bank 



NO. 1226, VOL, 47] 



from north to south to Flamingo Cay, and ther. 

 to Great Ragged Cay, from which we took our depar- 

 ture for Baracoa. At Baracoa I hoped to be able to 

 ascend the Yunque ; unfortunately I had to give up my 

 trip owing to the desperate condition of the roads. From 

 Baracoa we steamed close to the shores to the westward, 

 touching at Port Banes, Port Padre, Cay Confites, Sagua, 

 Cape Frances, Cardenas, Matanzas, and finally ending at 

 Havana. This trip was a continuation of the observa- 

 tions we made on the south coast of Cuba and enabled 

 me to trace the gradual disappearance of the terraces 

 from Baracoa to Nuevitas, and their reappearance from 

 Matanzas to Havana, from the same causes which evi- 

 dently influenced their state of preservation from Cape 

 Maysi west. I also got a pretty clear idea of the mode 

 of formation of the fine harbours found on the northern 

 coast of Cuba to the eastward of Nuevitas, and of the 

 mode of formation of the extensive systems of cays reach- 

 ing from Nuevitas to Cardenas and which find their 

 parallel on the south coast of Cuba from Cape Cruz to 

 Cape Corrientes. After refitting at Havana we left for 

 Nassau. Both on going into Havana and on leaving we 

 spent the greater part of a day in towing with the Tanner 

 net. I thought I could not select a better spot for finally 

 settling the vertical distribution of pelagic life than 

 off Havana which is in deep water — 900 fathoms 

 — close to land, on the track of a great oceanic current, 

 the Gulf Stream, noted for the mass of pelagic life it 

 carries along its course. We towed in 100, 150, 250, and 

 300 fathoms and on the surface at or near the same 

 locality, and I have found nothing to cause me to change 

 the views which I expressed in my preliminary reports of 

 the Albatross expedition of 1891. Nowhere did I find 

 anything which was not at some time found also at the 

 surface. At 100 fathoms the amount of animal life was 

 much less than in the belt from 100 fathoms to the sur- 

 face. At 150 fathoms there was still less and at 250 

 fathoms and 300 fathoms the closed part of the Tanner 

 contained nothing. At each one of these depths we 

 towed fully as long as was required to bring the net to 

 the surface again. Thus we insured before the messenger 

 was sent to close the lower part of the bar as long a pull 

 through water as the open part of the net would have to 

 travel till it reached the surface, giving the fauna of a 

 horizontal column of water at 100, 150, 250, and 300 

 fathoms of the same or greater length than the vertical 

 column to the surface for comparison of their respective 

 richness. From Havana we steamed to Cay Sal Bank, 

 visited Cay Sal, Double-headed Shot Cays, Anguila Islands, 

 and then crossed over to the Great Bank to the west of 

 Andros Island. The bottom of this bank is of a most uni- 

 form level, 3 and 3^ fathoms for miles and then very gradu- 

 ally sloping to the west shore of Andros, so that we had to 

 anchor nearly six miles from the" Wide Opening" of 

 the central part of Andros which we visited. The bottom 

 consists of a white marl, resembling when brought up in 

 the dredge newly mixed plaster of Paris, and having 

 about its consistency just as it begins to set. This same 

 bottom extends to the shore ; and the land itself, which 

 is low where we went on shore not more than 10 to 15 

 inches above high-water mark, is made up of the same 

 material, which feels under foot as if one were treading 

 upon a sheet of soft india rubber ; of course on shore the 

 marl is drier and has the consistency of very thick dough. 

 It appears to be made up of the same material as the 

 aeolian rocks of the rest of the Bahamas, only that it has 

 become thoroughly saturated with salt water, and in that 

 condition it crumbles readily and is then triturated into 

 a fine impalpable powder almost like deep sea ooze which 

 covers the bottom of the immense bank to the west of 

 Andros. After leaving Andros wc crossed the bank again 

 to Orange Cay and followed the eastern edge of the Gulf 

 Stream to see Riding Rocks, Gun Cay, and the Beminis. 

 We then passed to Great Isaac, where we saw some huge 



