RECONNOISSANCE OF THE ELIZABETH ISLANDS 395 



Considered from the social standpoint the island constitutes a 

 magnificent domain, easy of access and yet unspoiled by the de- 

 structive elements of civilization. It is a place in which deer and 

 other wild creatures roam and breed freely amid natural sur- 

 roundings and the general impression is that of a home of mod- 

 ern luxury and culture located in a wilderness, such as one 

 would never expect to find in this part of the United States.^ 



Pasque 



This island, owned by the Pasque Island Club, an organiza- 

 tion devoted to striped bass fishing, has an area of about i ^ 

 square miles and is entirely treeless, except for a small clump 

 oi Pimis sylvestris L., which was planted near the club house, at 

 the eastern end. It is a dome-shaped portion of the moraine, 

 somewhat elongated in an east and west direction, with a maxi- 

 mum elevation of about 1 20 feet through the central axis and 

 sloping irregularly in all directions to the shore line. In conse- 

 quence there are no very high bluffs anywhere exposed and no 

 sections of any extent are available for study. 



Swamps occupy many of the depressions, in which Clcthra 

 alnifolia L. and Decodon verticillatus (L.) Ell. are conspicuous 

 and Oxy coccus niacrocarpns (Ait.) Pers. is plentiful. The hills 

 are bare and wind-swept, resulting in a sort of turf composed of 

 stunted herbaceous plants of several species, as well as grass, of 

 which Solidago nernoralis Ait. and Aster cricoidcs L. are the 

 most prominent constituents. CJirysopsis falcata (Pursh) EH., 

 Sericocarpits liidfolhis {\^?)^. S. P., Hicrachnn Caiiadense Michx., 

 H. Gronovii L. and Gyrostachys gracUis (Bigel) Kuntze, were also 

 in sufficient abundance to be specially noticed. 



The general superficial geological conditions are identical with 



Marbut, in the 17th Annual Report of the United States Geological Survey, Part I., 

 pp. 951-1004, where they are incidentally mentioned on pp. 962 and 983, without, 

 however, giving any exact locality. On the latter page is also figured a theoretical 

 section through Buzzards' Kay, Naushon, Vineyard Sound and Martha's Vineyard. 

 ^ Those who are interested in this phase of the subject may find a reference to the 

 social life of the island in Oliver Wendell Holmes' "Autocrat of the Breakfast 

 Table," Chapter H., and an illustrated popular account by Gustav Kobbe in the 

 Century Magazine, LVI (Sept., 1898), 753-759. 



