82 
Again favored by the easterly wind, we made Great Harbor, 
near the northern end of the Berry Islands in the late afternoon 
of January 31, and on February 1, 2 and 3, explored Great 
Sturrup Cay, Goat Cay, Lignum Vitae Cay and Great Harbor 
Cay ; we here noted the apparent eg limits of a number of 
species which do not seem to extend to the north of the deep 
nd wide ee Providence Channel which separates the 
Berry Islands from Great Bahama. On Great Harbor Cay we 
found elegant flowering specimens of the Dalaman century plant 
(Agave sp.), uniformly called “ Bamboo” by the natives, Its 
enormous masses of fragrant yellow flowers form without 
doubt the most striking indigenous floral feature of this island ; 
the plant was subsequently observed on several other islands, 
as far south as Great Exuma, and our observations indicate that 
its flowering period is January and early February ; it dies, of 
course, immediately after its fruit is perfected, like the other 
Agaves. Both Great Harbor Cay and Great Sturrup Cay con- 
tain considerable areas of arable land; some of the original high 
coppice is still preserved on Lignum Vitae Cay, and on this we 
found a rare terrestrial orchid and a number of other plants of 
interest. The work about Great Harbor completed our exami- 
nation of the Berry Islands, and we left for the Great Bahama 
Island on the afternoon of February 3. 
Calm weather delayed our passage across the Northwest 
Providence Channel, so that we did not reach Eight Mile Rocks, 
a point on the south shore of the Great Bahama, about twenty- 
five miles east of its western end, until the morning of February 
5. The coast here is continuously rocky for about eight miles, 
and there is no harbor for boats of any considerable size ; fearing 
that we might be prevented from boarding the schooner by heavy 
surf, we went into camp at Eight Mile Rocks and spent five 
days in exploring the vicinity of that settlement. It soon became 
apparent that the flora of the Great Bahama Island contains 
many elements not yet discovered further south in the archi- 
pelago ; the island is over sixty miles long, lying east and west, 
its western end only about forty miles from Palm Beach, Florida ; 
its average width is perhaps six miles, and its surface is very 
