Life in the Bahama Islands. 34Y 



which has been and which has determined conditions that 

 render the existing life possible. In this paper, at all events, 

 it will not be possible more than to glance at the subject in a 

 general way. If the reader will suppose that he is sailing 

 over the " bank " or submerged part of the reef, a distance 

 of, say, two miles one way, and an equal distance in a direction 

 at right angles to this, what may he expect to see on the 

 bottom by the aid of his water-glass ? The latter can be 

 made very easily by puttying a pane of glass into one end 

 of a rectangular wooden pipe two feet long and about six 

 inches wide. He will pass several small keys, very much 

 alike, but the ledges of each of which will be found to shelter 

 myriads of marine creatures of every great group among 

 the Invertebrates. 



Over the bottom, dull white from the fine calcareous mud, 

 may be seen in one part, Algse of the most various shapes 

 and colors, in which group here, owing to calcification, the 

 plant bears a marked external resemblance to the Alcyonoid 

 corals, which may be seen in some cases at no great distance, 

 waving to and fro under the gently swaying water, the 

 whole suggesting, as one looks down, a submerged garden. 



In another area may be observed in masses large and 

 small the branching Madrepore (Madrepora cervicornis) ; 

 in still another region, Millepore and Fungoid corals, for it 

 soon becomes evident that the conditions, over even so 

 limited an area, do not suit each tribe equally well. Around 

 and among the very branches of the dead corals especially 

 may be seen representatives of all the different great divi- 

 sions of the Echinoderms, many Mollusks, Crustaceans, Anne- 

 lids, etc. While the Sponges may be found in many different 

 regions, they have selected and flourished over certain 

 parts of the bottom to such an extent, that the sponge 

 fishing is very much confined to this quarter. However, 

 Sponges may be seen growing almost everywhere, on coral 

 stones, and even on offshoots of the Mangrove, which, 

 by its peculiar habit of sending down branches into the 

 mud of the bottom on the shores which it overhangs, and 

 repeating this process again and again, forms a network for 

 entrapping everything which may be washed up, thus 



