12 BAHAMAN TRIP 



left it and walked to a small pond. The land was level as fair as we 

 could see, with the exception of a small coppet here and there. A walk 

 of about three-quarters of an hour brought us near a pond, and in the 

 distance we could see a scarlet patch, our first sight of flamingoes. 

 We got within about three hundred yards when they flew away. There 

 were four of them. We walked to another lake where we saw five 

 more, and I got within two hundred yards when they too flew away, 

 looking very brilliant and showing the black of their wings. Walked 

 to a large mangrove in the lake and shot a switching-neck, a blue 

 crane, and two long-shanks. Walking in the lake was exceedingly 

 difficult, the water being about three inches deep and the mud, into 

 which I sank at every step, eighteen or more. The " tell-bill-willy " 

 was very common, its shrill notes being heard on every side. 



Walked three or four miles farther to " Two-camp Lake," which was 

 so extensive we could see neither end of it. All the ground about here 

 is said to be covered with water in the "wet weather," in June and 

 July. These lakes are evidently low places from which the water 

 does not drain. It is strange that they contain so few mangroves, 

 only one or two large ones, while on the shores they are scattered 

 thickly. 



April 22. Very strong northeast wind. Left our anchorage about 

 five o'clock and sailed to the mouth of the creek, where we lay until 

 midnight, when we got under way. Skinned birds on deck all the morn- 

 ing, and by three o'clock we anchored at Red Bays; spent the night 

 in a thatch hut about nine feet square and about six feet high in the 

 center; it had a door of thatch and no windows. The ground back of 

 the settlement is rough, but not as bad as at Nicol's Town. 



Wednesday, April 23. Beat all day against wind and tide on the 

 return trip to Nicol's Town; wind blowing too hard to let us go around 

 Morgan's Bluff, so we landed at Money Cay in Lowe Sound and walked 

 to the village. 



Friday, April 25. Walked to Cocoanut Point, left the path and 

 walked back into the woods, had hard work to get through the bush. 

 Saw a number of bromeliaceous plants and found that some of the 

 orchids were in bloom. In the spreading base of the leaves of one of 

 the former plants, a species of Tillandsia we had not found before, a 

 colony of ants had their home. The thorax was brownish red, the 

 abdomen black and pointed behind. They have stings, and when 



