TOPOGEAPHY OF THE BAHAMAS. 447 



one.* Still it is impossible to speak with certainty, for the new theory is far from 

 solving all the difficulties. Samana or Atwood Cay, the island indicated by Fox, 

 must certainly have undergone considerable change during the last four centuries; 

 its east point must have disappeared by erosion or subsidence, while the inner 

 lagoon spoken of by Columbus must have dried up, if this be the first land 

 reached by him. But from Samana to Cuba the coincidence between Columbus' 

 log and the itinerary assumed by Fox is all but complete. 



Cat Island, notwithstanding its fertility and size — 165 square miles — was 

 found to be entirely abandoned in 1785, when over 100 loyalists from the United 

 States occupied it with their slaves. At present it has a population of over 

 4,000. Watling and Eum Cay, its eastern and southern neighbours, as well as 

 the narrow limestone reefs of Great Exuma and Long Island, are also inhabited 

 by small communities. 



South-eastwards follow the three islands of Fortune, Crooked and Acklin, 

 which really constitute a single island, divided by channels fordable at low water. 

 Fortune has become the most flourishing of all the Bahamas, and the rival of 

 Nassau as a port of call for steamers plying between New York, the West Indies 

 and the Hispano- American coastland. 



Andros, the largest member of the archipelago, is usually spoken of as a 

 single island, although in reality forming a group of several islets separated by 

 shallow sounds and straits. The group, which is the most densely wooded of all 

 the Bahamas, represents more than a third of all the dry land of the archipelago ; 

 it is, moreover, conveniently situated near Nassau, the capital, and between the two 

 channels which converge westv.'ards to form the entrance to the Gulf of Mexico. 

 But Andros is of difficult access, and much of the surface is covered by swamps and 

 brushwood. 



Great Inagua, at the southern extremity of the Bahamas, occupies a position 

 somewhat analogous to that of Andros opposite Windward Channel ; but it is 

 almost uninhabited. According to MacKinnon it owed its name, originally 

 perhaps Iguana, to these reptiles, which abound in all the Bahaman islands. 

 On the side facing Cuba the most thickly-peopled land is the so-called Great 

 Ragged Island, lying in the chain of reefs called by the Spaniards Cayos Jumentos. 



The circular Caicos bank east of Inagua is fringed by a few inhabited islets. 

 The Turks islets, belonging to the same group and lying still farther east, have 

 also received a few settlers. Here the prevailing vegetable form is a species 

 of dwarf cactus [cactus coronatus), familiarly known by the name of the " Turk's 

 head," having somewhat the appearance of a head w^ith white hair wrapped in a 

 turban. Hence the name given to this south-easternmost cluster of the Bahamas. 



Economic Condition of the Bahamas. 



The population increases but slowly, being affected by all the vicissitudes of 

 trade, good and bad harvests, and hurricanes which ruin the crops and enrich the 



* An Attempt to Solve the Problem of the First Landing-place of Culumbus. United States Coast and 

 Geodetic Survey, Report for 1880. 



