NO. 2 FRASER : SCIENTIFIC WORK, VELERO III, EASTERN PACIFIC 169 



Directly south of Cape San Lorenzo, 33 miles, with a bight in the 

 coast intervening, is a point off which Salango Island lies. There is a bar 

 between the island and the mainland, but there is good anchorage north- 

 east of the island. The island is 2 miles in circumference, high and covered 

 with luxuriant vegetation. There are four dredging stations in sand near 

 the anchorage, but no shore stations. 



Thirty-eight miles south-southwest of Salango Island is Punta Santa 

 Elena. There is a deep bight between, the southern portion of which 

 forms Santa Elena Bay. Its eastern limit may be considered to be Centi- 

 nella Point, 1 1 miles from Punta Santa Elena, and its depth is 3 miles. 

 It is all shallow, with seldom more than 10 fathoms of water. 



Punta Santa Elena is the tip of an abrupt, bare hill, 424 feet high, 

 abrupt toward the land as well as toward the sea, for the remainder of 

 the shore is low. The village of Salinas is situated on the shore 2 miles 

 east of the point, and La Libertad, the port of Santa Elena, 1 mile inland, 

 is 4 miles farther east than Salinas. 



The shore has been explored off La Libertad, off Salinas, and along 

 the open coast south of Punta Santa Elena. It is a suitable area for diving 

 and dipping by electric light. Dredging in the open part of the bay, in 

 sand, provides little; off Salinas it is somewhat better, but the real thrill 

 comes in dredging in rough, rocky bottom at the entrance north of Punta 

 Santa Elena, where almost every class of marine organism may be repre- 

 sented in a single haul. Gorgonids, echinoderms, and mollusks are par- 

 ticularly abundant. Mantas appeared to be more abundant off the point 

 than anywhere else in the eastern tropical Pacific. 



Punta Santa Elena is the northwestern extremity extending south- 

 westward, between Santa Elena Bay and the Gulf of Guayaquil. The 

 southwestern shore between Punta Santa Elena and Cape Morrow, 58 

 miles, faces on the outer part of the gulf. 



The Gulf of Guayaquil is very large as gulfs and bays along the Pa- 

 cific coast of South America go. The entrance from Punta Santa Elena, 

 Ecuador, to Cape Blanco, Peru, is nearly 90 miles across, and from this 

 entrance line to the mouth of the Guayas River it is over 100 miles. At 

 the entrance to the inner part of the gulf, from Morro Point to Payana 

 Point, it is still 36 miles wide. In the gulf there are several islands, the 

 largest of which is Puna Island, 29 miles long and 8 to 13 miles wide, 

 which lies to the southeastward of the peninsula already mentioned. 

 There is one shore station just north of the eastern point of the island, 



