144 
we should view kain coming development of their arians set ests with 
pleasure, and with the w warmest wishes for its omplete 
In conclusion, I would add that I have sent “i this ‘nail four ee 
of the Bahama fibre for the information and satisfaction of the Sta 
Department, liasing that the same would be of sufficient interest z 
justify me in so doing. These specimens were not specially pper 
but are only fair samples of the average fibre which is now bein 
and shipped from the colony. Two of them have still attached a atab 
or portion of the butt end of the leaf, which was purposely not passed 
through the machine, showing the character of the Sisal plant when 
react 
, THos. J. MCLAIN, jr. 
United States Consulate, Nassau, 
January 20, 1890 
XLVI.—FIBRE PRODUCTIONS IN THE CAICOS 
ISLANDS. 
[K. B., 1890, pp. 273-278.] 
The Turks and ies Islands lie pene 21° and 22° N. lat. and 
71° and 72° 37' W. long. Their area is 169 square miles. The most 
ee dere Ble Grand Turk, is 2} titles long and two miles trend: It 
con 2,500 inhabitants, being half the total population 
= islands were originally settled from Ber muda in the 18th 
century, and formed at first a portion of that colony. In 1799 they 
were transferred, for purposes of government, to the colony of the 
ues 
Salt-making is the only industry of any importance, the quantity 
annually gathered exceeding 1} million bushels. Sponges are found in 
some quantities on the Caicos bank, but = Aiii collected by Bahamas 
schooners and carried to Nassau. There ne sponge-curing establish- 
ment on the Caicos Islands. The litrat of the Manila fibre (or 
bin plant) is being extensively fitoduced: with every prospect of 
uccess 
Practically the whole of the food and household necessaries are im- 
being The commercial intercourse is almost wholly with the United 
a 
The inhabitants are of mixed European and African extraction, the 
proportion of whites to coloured people being larger than in most of 
the West Indies. 
The following correspondence relates to = oe which is being 
made to — the cultivation of fibre plan 
