XIV INTRODUCTION. 
marked with a red letter in my journal as the spot where the 
wonderful young Holopus was dredged. 
The difficulty of dredging in the region of the trade winds 
with a small vessel like the * Blake" is very great. No ex- 
tended explorations to windward were possible, but fortunately 
we were able to reach deep water under the lee of the Lesser 
Antilles. In ‘the channels between the islands the sea was 
usually too rough to allow us to sound even, and when steam- 
ing to windward, as during the passage from Jamaica to St. 
Thomas, all deep-sea work was out of the question, as we could 
scarcely forge ahead, and we rejoiced. to reach at last the shelter 
of St. Thomas. 
The appearance of the islands as seen from the deck of the 
vessel is most interesting, each one having a physiognomy of its 
own, yet all modifications of one type. If the physical features 
are well marked, the national characteristics of the different 
groups are no less so. Where Englishmen, Frenchmen, and 
Spaniards once fought for the supremacy of the sea and the 
possession of the New World, they are now content to live 
in friendly rivalry with the Danish and Swedish West Indian 
colonies. 
The island of St. Thomas, with its land-locked harbor, near 
the junction of the Lesser and Greater Antilles, is the central 
West Indian station. It is a long, low, undulating island, with 
summits reaching perhaps 800 feet in height, continuations of 
the crests of the extensive submarine bank which forms the Vir- 
gin Islands, one of which, Virgin Gorda, rises to nearly 1,800 
feet. These islands are almost bare, and the larger ones, cov- 
ered with wrecks of plantations and remaining uncultivated, are 
gradually being abandoned. The opposite island, Santa Cruz, 
is, like the Virgin Islands, low, but its slopes are covered from 
base to summit with brilliant fields of sugar-cane, and dotted 
here and there with factories and thriving towns. 
In the channel separating St. Thomas from Santa Cruz we 
find the deepest water in which the “ Blake” dredged, and 
near Frederichstzd, at the western extremity of the island, we 
come upon one of those rich localities characterized by an 
extraordinary abundance of deep-sea animals in comparatively 
shallow water. 
