8 PREFACE. 



the soil, he trusts his book will not only minister to the pleasure but be of 

 some practical value to those of his fellow citizens who, for any reason, desire 

 to avoid the severity of the weather at the north during the winter and earl}'' 

 spring months. It is but a chance seedling, but valuable fruit is sometimes 

 found upon trees by the wayside and in hedge-rows which no professional 

 pomologist has planted. If in the fruit gardens of literature the Isles of 

 Summer shall take root and flourish in the warm sun of popular favor, its 

 author will be gratified ; and he believes he will not be greatly troubled should 

 it be consigned as rubbish to the brush-heap — 



Tor he wrote not for money, nor for praise, 

 Nor to be called a wit, nor to wear bays." 



He seems to timself not so much an actor as a spectator having little inter- 

 est in the result. The freedom of his will has in this matter, to a large de- 

 gree, been dominated and controlled by circumstances. The movements of 

 the pen which recorded his thoughts seem like yesterday's heart-beats — they 

 left so little impression upon mind and memory. 



Seven of the wood cut illustrations in this book, being those which in the 

 table of illustrations are numbered respectively 4, 5, 7, 10, 11, 13 and 14, are 

 by permission of C. H. Mallory and Company of New York, the proprietors 

 of the steamship line now running between New York, Nassau and Matanzas, 

 copied from an illustrated pamphlet which they have printed for the benefit 

 of the patrons of their Une. The other wood engravings have been made for 

 this work and are with two exceptions from photographs taken in Nassau by 

 Mr. J. F. Coonlcy of New York. The lithographic plates are from drawings 

 made l)y Mr. J. H. Emerton of New Haven, and are mostly from specimens 

 which the author's wife collected in the Bahamas. The author takes pleasure 

 in acknowledging his indebtedness to Prof. A. E. Verrill, of the Shefileld 

 Scientific School, for valuable suggestions and for the scientific names of the 

 specimens in natural history pictured upon the lithographic plates 



IvESTON, near New Haven, Ct. 

 JDecembet^ 13, A. D., 1880. 



