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nearly east and west. Its surface is considerably diversified into 
plain, hill and marsh, and in the interior are several large brackish- 
water lakes not connected with the sea except by subterranean 
passages through the porous limestone of which the island is 
ing greatly in depth and diameter, known as sink holes, some of 
them not less than twenty feet deep; the coast line is partly 
the ordinary rock of the island and partly elegant coral-sand 
beaches, backed by low sand dunes; most of the swampy lands 
are brackish, but there are several large fresh water marshy 
areas; there is no permanent fresh water stream upon the island, 
but there are several small creeks opening to the sea. The soil 
is very meagre over nearly all parts of the island, and is derived 
from the decay of the limestone, which is evidently almost wholly 
soluble, and the accumulated débris of plants; the observer 
wonders, at first, at the dense natural thickets which exist, the 
shrubs and trees growing essentially immediately upon the rock, 
until closer examination reveals the innumerable cavities in the 
limestone into which the plants have sent their roots in all direc- 
tions; surely there can be no flora more firmly attached to its 
substratum than this is! And what an admirable protection to 
it from hurricanes ! 
There are many good driving roads on New Providence, and 
our explorations were mainly made by wagon; we thus tra- 
versed all the mapped roads, driving over 400 miles, stopping 
frequently to nae the country to either side by paths, or 
orcing our through the thi daa except upon the roads 
and well ae paths, walking is eile and even dangerous, 
owing to the jagged rocks which are scaly everywhere just at 
the surface of the ground or immediately beneath it, but pre- 
vious South Florida experience on a closely similar formation 
had trained us to be careful about the footing ; deere under the 
circumstances progress in the thickets was slow therwise there 
was little dangerous to be taken heed of ; oe are no larger 
animals to be feared, and a careful avoidance of coming in con- 
