28 BULLETIN : MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 



In the passages — such as Douglas Chaunel and Fleeming Channel 

 — leading from the Northeast Providence Channel on to the bank, 

 we find that coral heads extend into three to four fathoms, and may 

 be found even at less depth. But the heads are not vigorous, and 

 do not compare with those growing on the sea face of .the banks. 

 They occur everywhere on the banks in proximity to the open waters 

 of the deep channels, forming more or less extensive patches, such 

 as are known near Nassau, between Hog and Athol, as the Marine 

 Gardens. 



On striking the open bank itself, beyond the influence of the fringing 

 cays, one cannot fail to be struck with the poverty of the fauna and flora 

 upon this great expanse of disintegrated seolian rocks. We found almost 

 nothing upon the bank in the line extending in a general way parallel 

 to the northern edge, from Douglas Channel to the Glass Window on 

 Eleuthera ; here and there were to be met patches of Millepores or of 

 Gorgonians, or a few sponges, very few mollusks, small clusters of Zos- 

 tera and of coralline algae, and a few broken sea-urchins and shells, and 

 here and there a Crustacean or a Holothurian. The bottom was plainly 

 visible as we steamed along, the ground occupied by animal or vegetable 

 life presenting a different coloration. 



The long cays which are scattered upon the northeastern extremity 

 of the Bahama Bank to the northwest of Eleuthera are edged, as seen 

 coming from the north, by very low cliffs of seolian rocks breaking in 

 here and there on the otherwise continuous shore line. The north line 

 of cays are fairly sheltered from the violent action of the swell, owing 

 to the width of the shallow bank which extends beyond them, and also 

 by the line of the coral reef which fringes nearly the whole width of 

 the bank from a depth of five or six fathoms to ten or fifteen; so 

 that the sea is eating away but slowly the base of the shore hills of 

 these cays. 



Egg Island, on which we landed, does not differ from the typical 

 Bahama cay. The base of the seolian hills on the south face has been 

 beaten into diminutive vertical cliffs, which pass gradually into the 

 rounded hill slopes of the cay. The surface of the rocks is more or 

 less water worn, according to its distance from high-water mark and its 

 exposure to the action of the sea. 



