228 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



fare. The outfit of provisions cannot be very extensive, for, 

 ^vhile the Sophia Maud was lying under the lee of Pelican Cay, 

 several sponging vessels also came into the little harbor for shelter 

 and anchored. By the morning of the second day it was judged 

 that provisions had run short among them, for the boats were out 

 and they were making a lively hunt for conchs for dinner. Two 

 men in each boat, stripped to the pelt, both ready to dive on the 

 instant, sculled easily about, peering down into the water with a 

 water glass made of a long box, eight inches square and twelve 

 inches long, with a glass bottom. With this they could see the 

 shell-fish in quite deep water and to see one was to dive for it. A 

 •civilized man is in pretty great straits for food when his appetite 

 will enable him to feast on the IJesh of the conch, Strontbus Gigas. 



The cruise of the Sophia ]\Iaud had a most auspicious termina- 

 tion. The interior waters among the islands form delightful 

 cruising grounds, where one may generally look for a fair wind 

 and make a safe anchorage ever}'' night. The last two days of the 

 trip proved to be the only calm weather of the entire cruise ; there 

 "was barely air enough to move the yacht along ; the water was 

 smooth as glass and the bottom of the ocean could be seen, at the 

 •depth of seventy feet, as clearly as if nothing intervened. The 

 'wonderful transparencj'^ of the water was difficult to understand 

 «,nd impossible to explain. The sun shone with great brilliancy, 

 the atmosphere was clear and bright, and when the shadow of the 

 great mainsail was thrown upon the surface, the water seemed to 

 ■disappear as if the little vessel was by some mysterious means 

 borne or hung suspended in the air. On the bottom could be 

 iclearly seen the different moUusks moving slowly about, the peri- 

 "winkle as well as the conch ; the varied and beautiful forms of 

 coral, and the sea-plumes of all shades of color, waving gently in 

 the current. 



Fishes of all sizes and colors were swimming lazih' around ; the 

 «and-fish, about the size and appearance of a good robust chub, 

 •shy and timid fellows, on being startled would bury their noses in 

 the sand and waving their tails slowly to and fro seemed to simu- 

 late the motion of the sea-plumes about them ; the barracouda, a 

 -species of shark, lying stationary thirt}' or forty feet away, like a 

 >clipper-built pirate as he is, waiting for his prey, seemed to ask 

 what we were there for and what we proposed to do ; the turbot 

 with its varied colors of yellow, green, and blue, a nice fish for pan 



