72 BULLETIN : MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 



The chain of small cays in the vicinity of Rock Harbor, to the west- 

 ward of Great Abaco, affords one of the best examples of the evidence 

 we have of the former continuity of the many cays scattered all over 

 that part of the bank. The cliffs of the cays are eaten away at the base 

 by the slow action of the sea, which here has a far more limited range 

 than when acting upon the Woollendean Cays to the southward. The 

 bottom here is sticky, and, though still of the characteristic gray color, 

 is made up of much finer particles than the samples of bottom we ob- 

 tained on our way to this point from Mores Island. 



The few large pines still left upon some of the smaller islands near 

 Rock Harbor indicate clearly their former connection with the pine 

 forests which are seen upon the main island (Great Abaco) to the 

 eastward. Rock Harbor Cay was interesting as showing us the rem- 

 nants of the inner western line of hills which form the Black Point of 

 Little Abaco, appear again on Randall's Cay and on Norman's Castle on 

 Great Abaco, and which may have formed the line of hills connecting 

 Great and Little Abaco. 



Little Abaco is separated by a narrow shallow channel from Great 

 Abaco, and is only a narrow spit, the remnant of a line of hills running 

 westward from the northern extremity of Great Abaco. 



Coming back to Channel Cay, we pushed rapidly north to Bahama 

 Island, steaming all the way from Channel Cay over the fine coral 

 reef which fringes the western edge of the bank in from four to ten 

 fathoms. The reef is bare at many points, especially in the extension of 

 some of the ledges of rocks or low cays in the channels formed between 

 them. The western slope of the bank is often very steep ; it was not an 

 uncommon occurrence while steaming over the reef to see the patches of 

 the great coral heads in from five to eight fathoms on one side of the 

 yacht, while on the port side we could not see bottom. From Burrow 

 Cay to Carrion Crow Harbor there is a continuous stretch of coral sand 

 banks separated by shallow channels, leaving passages for small boats to 

 enter the bank. In the channels, or flanking these sand banks or their 

 extensions as rocky ledges, thriving patches of large heads of corals 

 could be seen whenever we came near enough to the outer line of 

 cays. A few miles north of Carrion Crow Harbor the line of the 

 great barrier reef, which runs parallel with Bahama Island, makes a 

 sharp angle. As we ran parallel with this beautiful reef, we could fol- 

 low the spurs of the main reef striking toward the shore of the island, 

 and becoming changed at many places for a short distance into a 

 fringing: reef. 



