THE BAHAMAS. 443 



•wliicli grows on the branclies of several kinds of trees. During the rains it became 

 saturated and when squeezed like a sj)onge yielded a considerable supply. 



Flora and Fauna. 



Despite the apparent aridity of these calcareous lands, the Bahamas have a 

 remarkably rich flora, supported by a rainfall exceeding 40 inches in the northern 

 islands, a saturated atmosphere and underground reservoirs. The negroes pre- 

 pare the ground for tillage by breaking up the crust of the rocks with crowbars, 

 and reducing it to a fine powder, which forms the vegetable soil. The large 

 islands, and especially Andros, have extensive forests composed of the same 

 species as those of Haiti and Cuba. Mahogany was very common at the time of 

 the first settlement, and the United States pitch-jDine ranges as far south as 

 Nassau, about the parallel of the southern extremity of Florida. 



In its land fauna the Bahama group differs in no respect from Cuba, except 

 that its birds of passage, migrating between North America and the Lesser Antilles, 

 are more numerous. The sparrow, recently introduced, has multiplied so pro- 

 digiously that the legislature has offered rewards for the heads and eggs of this 

 troublesome intruder. Turtles and fishes, several locally bearing the same names 

 as different European sjDecies, abound in the creeks and marine caves, and to the 

 countless shells (conchs) of the Bahaman waters the islanders are indebted for 

 the nickname of " Conchs " by which they are known in the West Indies. 



Some of the deeper basins, better sheltered by encircling reefs, have received 

 the name of " gardens of the sea " from the lovely growths of polyps which float 

 on the heaving waters, expanding and closing their beautiful blossoms at the 

 passage of the bright -coloured fishes. The crocodile, elsewhere confined to sweet 

 or brackish waters, is an inhabitant of the Bahaman seas, although not found in 

 the southern Antilles ; its fle>h is much appreciated by the islanders. 



Inhabitants. 



The great bulk of the Bahaman populations are negroes, who, unlike those of 

 the other West Indian archipelagoes, are said to have preserved the tradition of the 

 African peoples whence they have sprung. Thus the coloured " Conchs " appear 

 to be still divided into Yoruba, Egba, Ebo (Ibo) and Congo groups, each tribe 

 annually electing its own " queen," and recognising her authority in the admi- 

 nistration of local affairs.* Although slavery is abolished, racial distinctions are 

 maintained with the same tenacity as in other regions where Anglo-Saxon and 

 negro communities dwell side by side. The blacks are even virtually excluded 

 from the Protestant churches, although most of the whites are Methodists, and 

 consequently less exclusive than Anglican congregations. 



By a system analogous to the Mexican peonage the traders hold the coloured 

 proletariate class in a kind of servitude, giving them small advances of provisions 



* Powles, The Land of the Bink Pearl. 



