166 ALLAN HANCOCK PACIFIC EXPEDITIONS VOL.1 



the islets are rocky, but the eastern shore of the port is mainly a sandy 

 beach, extending outward to form a sandspit. Back of the shore the eleva- 

 tion increases rapidly; and, as this is well within the tropical rain-forest 

 region, the hillsides are heavily wooded and the undergrowth is dense. 

 Cocoanut palms, bananas, and papayas are grown in inhabited areas. 



Port Utria has provided the stage for much endeavor. Three visits 

 have been made to it, and 28 stations have been established in the vicinity. 

 The shore stations are on the rocky shores of both the peninsula and the 

 islands, and here too there are plenty of coral masses. In dredging in 

 10-50 fathoms the hauls made at and outside the entrance, and in the 

 deeper water off the islands, were in mud ; but nearer shore, outside the 

 islands, and the channels between the islands, there are sand, shell, and 

 rock, and here the fauna in evidence is much richer. Sea urchins and cake 

 urchins are plentiful. Black and green sea snakes are very abundant. 



The coast line from Alusea Point, 8 miles, to Cape Corrientes serves 

 as the seaward face of a conspicuous, densely wooded promontory, with 

 deep water coming close to shore. There is a 3-mile southern face to the 

 promontory, east of which the coast turns north for a short distance to 

 form the western shore of semicircular Cabita Bay, 3% miles wide and 

 1*4 miles deep. The high rocky coast ends with the peninsula, and the east 

 shore is the beginning of a long stretch of low coast, with sandy beaches 

 or mud flats and numerous estuaries. In the vicinity of Cabita Bay the 

 jungle must reach nearly the maximum of impenetrability. 



The rocky shore of the peninsula and the sandy beach at the head of 

 the bay have provided some specimens, but any attempts at dredging have 

 been largely abortive. The bottom consists of such finely divided mud or 

 silt that it has not enough consistency to trip the bottom-sampler. Possibly 

 no other place explored offered such poor marine collecting. 



From Cabita Bay the coast passes directly southward and then slightly 

 westward to Chirambira Point, on one of the islands in the delta of the 

 San Juan River, 72 miles from Cape Corrientes. The main mouth of the 

 river is 10 or 12 miles farther south. 



Directly west of the mouth of this river, 250 miles, is the 1-mile long, 

 barren, high, perpendicular rock, Malpelo Island. There are three soli- 

 tary rocks exposed north of the island, North Rocks, and five south of the 

 island, South Rocks. The island is a pinnacle, 846 feet high, above water, 

 that comes up from the bottom of what otherwise is a sea, mostly more 

 than 1,000 fathoms in depth. A landing has been made on this island to 

 do some shore collecting, but no attempt was made at dredging. 



