AGASSIZ: BAHAMAS. 27 



Northern Eleuthera off Current Cut. The Six Shilling Cays and other 

 rocks forming the northwestern edge of the bank to the eastward of 

 Nassau are all low, bare, eaten away at the base (the remnant of the 

 Eleuthera-Nassau land), formed of seolian rocks greatly weathered and 

 worn ; Fleeming as well as Douglas Channel being formed by the subsi- 

 dence of the bank, of which the islets and cays and rocks are the higher 

 summits and the channels the lower parts of the intervening space. As 

 we came up to Pimlico Cay we saw an extensive belt of angular seolian 

 rocks thrown up along the north shore of the cay above high-water mark. 

 The north face of the cays between Fleeming Channel and Current Cut 

 has been greatly eroded, and the rocks rounded and honeycombed by 

 the action of the sea. 



From Pimlico Cay to Egg Island round to Bridge Point there are a 

 number of cays which have formed an outside line as it were upon 

 the triangular extension of the bank to the northwest of Eleuthera. 

 These cays are the outliers of the former Eleuthera land, having become 

 disconnected from the main island. Of these cays we examined Egg 

 Island, Northern Eleuthera, and the north end of Current Island adja- 

 cent to Current Cut. The constitution of the islands was everywhere 

 the same, of seolian origin. The bottom on the bank where we anchored 

 was made up of fine coral sand, with many broken shells, mainly bi- 

 valves. A strong current sweeps north or south through Current Cut 

 according to the stage of the tides. 



From the western face of Egg Island an extensive reef runs parallel 

 to Eoyal and Russell Islands, from two to three miles distant, as far as 

 Bridge Point on Eleuthera, where it sweeps across the northern extrem- 

 ity of Eleuthera and skirts the cays as far as the southern end of Harbor 

 Island. The 100 fathom line runs so near the bluffs of Eleuthera, near 

 the Glass Window, that the reef is interrupted, but reappears near 

 James Point. From there it skirts the eastern face of Eleuthera as a 

 fringing and barrier reef, and it extends south to meet the reef which 

 connects Eleuthera, Little San Salvador, and Cat Island. From Eleu- 

 thera Point it extends on the west coast, but rather irregularly, as far 

 as Bamboo Point. It appears again in patches on the west side of Powell 

 Point Channel, to the south of the Schooner Cays, on the northern edge 

 of the Exuma Sound Bank. From Ship Channel Cay to Wide, Opening 

 the corals on the edge of the bank are in from three to five fathoms of 

 water, and the gaps between the cays are one mass of coral heads, with 

 such passages as Ship Channel, Highborn Cut, Wax Cay Cut, and Wide 

 Opening leading from Exuma Sound on to the bank. 



