136 bulletin: museum of comparative zoology. 



Opposite the river Moa the coral reef which stretches across the port 

 of Cayo Moa is interrupted, and the break forms the entrance to Cayo 

 Moa Bay. A still better example is perhaps that of the anchorages of 

 Yamanigaiey and Canete, where the outlying coral reef is broken through 

 in two places, opposite each of the rivers which gives the anchorage its 

 name. These lead into an elongated bay, the northern end of which is 

 the Bay of Canete and the southern the Bay of Yamaniguey. 



Between Herradura Point and Cape May si we find only here and there 

 patches and short stretches of fringing and edging coral reefs, or small 

 reef harbors, as between Gibara and Sama Point, and south of Mulas 

 Point to Banes, and between the entrances of Nipe and Port Canova. 

 From that point the shore platform becomes wider and the reef more 

 continuous to oft' Cayo Moa ; it runs close to the shore from Mangle 

 Point to Jaragua. From this place to Cape Maysi corals grow outside 

 of the elevated soboruco reef only where the deep water does not come 

 too close to the sea face of the elevated reef. But the living coral reefs 

 of this part of the coast, all the way from Cape Maysi to Nuevitas on 

 the west, and to Cape Cruz on the south coast, are of little importance. 



DISTRIBUTION OF CORALS IN THE BAHAMAS. 



Plate I. and Plates IX. to XII. 



It is interesting to follow the distribution of corals upon the banks. 

 Excluding the edging reefs of the Great and Little Bahama Banks, as well 

 as those of the outer edge of the smaller outlying eastern banks which 

 ' have been referred to elsewhere, we find that upon the interior of the Great 

 Bahama Bank reef corals are limited to a wide belt running east from New 

 Providence as far as Current Island, and extending in a southerly direc- 

 tion. Between New Providence and the Ship Channel another extensive 

 tract, known as the Middle Ground, is full of coral heads. It is separated 

 from the New Providence ground by a barren area, and a similar area 

 separates it on the south from another great patch of coral heads to the 

 westward of Norman Cay. On examining the chart, it will be found 

 that these areas of reef corals are in a position to be swept by the clear 

 water of the Tongue of the Ocean and of the Northeast Providence 

 Channel in regions where the bottom is not in constant turmoil from the 

 action of the sea. In fact they probably grow upon the isolated patches 

 of seolian rock, which afford the corals a solid foundation. With the 



