12 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1917. 



wore or less defective skulls. Beneath the crust was white sand, which also 

 contained many bones, with a few Indian ornaments and fragments of pottery. 

 The consolidated crust differed in composition. For the larger part it was 

 coquina, of just about such a composition as beach accumulations along the 

 sea ; but in other places the solidified part consisted almost entirely of white 

 sand, while in still others it was a dark concretionary mass enclosing shells, 

 sand, and vegetable matter, besides the bones. The human bones, though evi- 

 dently more or less changed, were not yet petrified ; and the mound as a whole 

 appears to have no claim to antiquity greater than perhaps a few hundred 

 years ; but its surface offers a fine example of what favorable conditions can 

 accomplish in no great space of lime in the way of consolidation and inclusion 

 into rock of human remains. 



BIOLOGICAL WORK IN CUBA AND HAITI. 



Mr. John B. Henderson, a Regent of the Institution, and Dr. Paul 

 Bartsch, curator of marine invertebrates, spent the last half of March 

 in the region about the Guantanamo Naval Station in eastern Cuba, 

 collecting a large quantity of very interesting land shells, birds, 

 plants, fossils, and marine invertebrates. The month of April was 

 spent in Haiti, where they thoroughly explored the Cul-de-Sac region, 

 the north coast of the western peninsula, and the coastal range from 

 the Cul-de-Sac north as far as San Marcos. They secured many in- 

 teresting specimens of land and fresh water mollusks, several new 

 birds, some very interesting cacti and other plants, and a general in- 

 vertebrate collection from this much neglected island. A large series 

 of interesting photographs was also made, many of which will be 

 used in a report on the expedition which the explorers hope to pub- 

 lish in the near future. 



BOTANICAL EXPLORATIONS IN THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 



During the summer of 1916, from June to November, Mr. A. S. 

 Hitchcock, custodian of the section of grasses of the division of 

 plants in the National Museum, traveled in the Hawaiian Islands 

 studying and collecting the flora, especially the grasses. Concerning 

 his explorations Mr. Hitchcock says : 



The islands are all of volcanic origin and the rock is lava except a - very little 

 that is coral formation. Kauai, the geologically oldest island, shows the great- 

 est effect of erosion, the deep canyons rivaling in beauty the Grand Canyon 

 of the Colorado. On the island of Hawaii are the two highest peaks of the 

 group, Mauna Kea, 13,825 feet, and Mauna Loa, 13,675 feet in height. Above 

 10,000 feet there is scarcely any vegetation upon these peaks, especially upon 

 Mauna Loa, which is made up of comparatively recent lava. 



The important agricultural industries are the raising of sugar, live stock, 

 and pineapples. The cultivated trees and shrubs are of great variety and 

 beauty, and are drawn from all tropical and subtropical lands. One of the in- 

 troduced trees of great economic importance is the algaroba tree, or kiawe, as 

 the Hawaiians call it. It is found in a belt on the lowlands along the shores 

 of all the islands and occupies the soil almost to the exclusion of other plants. 



