xil. INTRODUCTION. 
to put into Key West. From there, when the weather moder- 
ated, we started for Kingston, Jamaica, calling at Havana for 
the purpose of making a couple of hauls on the, Pentacrinus 
ground discovered by Sigsbee off the Morro Light. (Fig. B.) 
Fig. B. —Morro Castle (Havana), with modern limestone terrace in foreground, 
We made two casts of the dredge, passing from 175 to 400 
fathoms, and obtained a few specimens of Pentacrinus. We 
kept on along the northern shore of Cuba, through the Old 
Bahama Channel, without stopping to sound or dredge, Pour- 
talés having in former years dredged and sounded from the 
« Bibb,” Acting Master Platt, U. S. N., over the greater part of 
this line. 
In the dredgings taken off the southeastern end of Jamaica 
we did not bring up anything of great importance. From Ja- 
maica we were obliged, owing to the strong trades, to keep on 
toward St. Thomas, without either sounding or trawling till off 
Porto Rico. During the winter months the trades blow suffi- 
ciently hard to make dredging and sounding quite uncomfortable 
on a vessel of the size of the “ Blake." We therefore had no 
opportunity of adding anything to the hydrography of that 
part of the Caribbean Sea. 
The region over which we chiefly worked this year reached 
from St. Thomas to Trinidad. Over a limited area like this, it 
was possible to cover the ground very satisfactorily. The work 
done off the principal islands began usually at the hundred- 
fathom line, and extended into the deepest water off the lee side 
of the Caribbean Islands. But little could be done in the way 
of dredging in the passages between the islands or to the wind- 
ward of them, owing to the strong trades. While working off 
