THREE CRUISES OF THE BLAKE 179 



fortable process. The winter was spent in dredging and 

 sounding among the Windward Islands, 1 chiefly on the 

 lee or Caribbean side, although some work was done 

 to windward of Barbados. 



A guest on a much later expedition has reason to 

 believe that the soundings then made on the Blake 

 form the basis of the charts of this region. Hereabout 

 lies the island of Saba, an abrupt volcano rising directly 

 from the sea, whose chief industry is boat-building. 

 Although there is neither a harbor nor any timber on 

 the island, the inhabitants, living mostly within the 

 crater, construct their craft inside its walls, and labori- 

 ously drag them to the ocean. 



When in 1907, Agassiz was visiting these old haunts 

 in the yacht Virginia, some of the party were anxious 

 to see this curious island. As it was not convenient to 

 land there, the yacht was steered so close along the 

 shore, for a better view of the mountain, that presently 

 there was a note of protest. 



"It strikes me," exclaimed an expostulating voice, 

 " that this is a very risky business ! How do you know, 

 father, that the chart is to be depended on ? " 



" Oh ! I fancy," said Agassiz quietly, " that the 

 soundings are all right ; I made them." 



While to leeward of the Caribbean Islands the Blake's 

 dredge brought up large quantities of vegetable matter 

 and land debris from deep water many miles from shore. 

 It was not an uncommon thing to find at a depth of 

 over a thousand fathoms, masses of leaves, pieces of 

 bamboo, of sugar cane, dead land shells, and other land 

 refuse, all of which had undoubtedly sunk after being 



1 Much work, which does not appear on the chart, was done among 

 the islands, often at very considerable distances from the track shown. 



