46 



BULLETIN : MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 



and in marked contrast to the pine-covered cays of Andros, iS T ew Provi- 

 dence, and the Little Bahama Bank. 1 



From Cape Verd north the coast of Long Island is formed by low 

 rounded seolian hills with gentle slopes to the eastward ; it then passes 



iEOLIAN HILLS AND CLIFFS, SOUTHERN PART OF LONG ISLAND. 



into much higher hills, the base of which is formed by vertical cliffs of 

 seolian rock, extending to the southern extremity of the opening of 

 Clarence Harbor. To the north seolian hills of varying heights succeed 

 one another, flanked to the eastward for almost the whole length of the 

 island to its northern extremity by vertical cliffs full of holes and cav- 

 erns. At a short distance south of Cape Santa Maria these eroded cliffs 

 are quite striking. 



^EOLIAN CLIFFS SOUTH OF CAPE SANTA MARIA. 



At the landing place the shores of Clarence Harbor consist of recent 

 coral sand strata, dipping slightly to the sea. The summit of the ridge 

 of one of the islands forming the outer barrier of the harbor, say twenty- 

 five feet above high water, was formed of seolian rocks ; on the inside, 

 round the base of it, shore coral deposits had collected, which were ex- 

 posed in the flats between the seolian hills forming the outer line of the 

 harbor and the shore of the island. On the summit of the outlying 

 islands we observed many huge angular blocks similar to those which 

 are thrown up by hurricanes and line the outer shores of so many of 

 the islands of the Bahamas. 



We were able on this island easily to observe how the sea undermines 

 the seolian rocks. Huge rocks are thus broken off from the sea face, fall 

 into the sea, and are in turn broken into smaller blocks, either as they 

 crumble from the fall, or by the subsequent action of the sea as they 

 lie piled up just as if the base of the hill had been blasted ; and sub- 

 sequently, at times of violent storms or of hurricanes, these huge 



1 See List of Plants collected in the Bahamas by A. S. Hitchcock (4th Ann. 

 Rep. Mo. Bot. Garden, 1893). 



