NO. 2 FRASER: SCIENTIFIC WORK, VELERO III, EASTERN PACIFIC 221 



exposed. There is a bay at each end of Perry Isthmus, Elizabeth Bay to 

 the west and Cartago Bay to the east, and a bay on the west coast, Banks 

 Bay, just south of Cape Berkeley, the northwest point of the island. 

 There is no very safe anchorage in any of these ; but there is one in Tagus 

 Cove — a small, funnel-shaped inlet, shut off from the open sea by the 

 north end of Narborough Island. 



There are several small islands near the coast, the most noticeable 

 being Redondo Rock, 14 miles off the north shore; White Rock, white 

 with guano, off the entrance to Cartago Bay; and Crossman Islets and 

 Tortuga Island, off the southeast convexity of the island. Near the head 

 of Tagus Cove there is a saline lake in an old crater. 



There are many collecting stations on or near Albemarle Island. Near 

 the northeast point of the island, Albemarle Point, there has been col- 

 lecting along the rough, rocky shore, in the tide pools, and among the 

 mangroves in the small lagoon. There are an abundance of birds, some 

 marine iguanas, and sea lions. One attempt at dredging in the shallow 

 water was not much of a success. South of Cape Berkeley, at the northern 

 entrance to Banks Bay, the rocky shore has been explored, and again at 

 Black Bight at the southern entrance of this bay. Here also there has been 

 dredging in 12 fathoms, rock. A short distance north of the northern 

 entrance to Tagus Cove, there is a reef near the shore, with the surface 

 exposed only at low spring tide. This has provided some good collecting. 

 Tagus Cove has been a favored location ; there have been 26 stations in 

 or near it. The shore stations are on the rocks on both sides of the cove. 

 On the west shore there are some interesting aggregations of solitary 

 corals, forming almost as dense masses as the colonial corals do. There is 

 one station on the shore of the near-by saline lake. At anchorage the 

 electric light reveals a most interesting marine world. The plankton is 

 plentiful and varied ; many of the specimens are large enough to be seen 

 readily. The large, graceful flying fish provide much of the visible motion 

 to the picture, which may be quite a peaceful one until the ubiquitous 

 shark intrudes. 



The dredging stations from near the head of the cove to well out in 

 the channel between Albemarle and Narborough provide a gradation 

 from sandy bottom, in 10 fathoms or less, near the head, where such sand- 

 loving species as Amphioxus are found, out through a coralline and nulli- 

 pore bottom in 10-50 fathoms to the channel depths of 75 fathoms in rock. 



There is one shore station 2 miles south of Tagus Cove, and there 

 are no more until Cape Christopher. Here the shore is so rocky and 

 broken and the surf is so violent that the collection is a scanty one. 



