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channel was closed up and that it would be impossible to get to the 
seaward side of the cays, unless the channel that is supposed to 
cut Romano into two parts was open, we would have to return 
over the route we had come to Guajaba Channel before we could 
get outside. Having suspected for some time that the boatman: 
who was a splendid sailor, had passed beyond the territory with 
which he was familiar and was no longer to be depended upon as 
a guide, I insisted that he had given no evidence that we were 
in the channel or that we had been on Cayo Cocos, and that we 
must go at least ten miles farther westward before I would consent 
to return. Fortunately, at this point, we sighted a group of 
fishing boats in that direction and set sail towards them, in quest 
of information. These we overtook about dusk and were in- 
formed that the mouth of the channel was at least three leagues 
to the west. They also told us that the bay side of Cayo Cocos 
was made up of a conglomeration of mangrove thickets and 
shallow mud-bottomed lagoons and that it would be impossible to 
make a landing as we did not have a small row-boat. It was long 
after dark when we found a suitable anchoring place for the night. 
Next morning, October 23, we sailed some distance westward 
Later on, however, we made a landing on the channel shore where 
a ledge of lime rock was exposed to the water. Here Conocarpus 
was the principal woody plant. Back from the shore a salt marsh 
formed the boundary of an extensive lagoon. The number of 
common weeds here plainly indicated that it was the occasional 
landing place of fishermen. From this point the channel nar- 
rowed very rapidly and we passed through several miles of very 
deep water. The mangrove (Rhizophora), of considerable height, 
was the only vegetation visible and several alligators were seen 
during this tedious trip, for it was necessary to row much of the 
time, there being no wind and too much depth of water to use 
the pole. 
It was quite late in the afternoon when we got on the outside 
and it was seen that this part of both cays was the same monoto- 
