THE BAHAMAS AND BERMUDAS 295 



no larger than a man's head, and then we had a run of 

 forty miles across the bank again to reach Great Harbor 

 near Stirrup Cay, where we anchored last night close 

 to a lighthouse, which enabled us to make the port ; but 

 anyway the moonlight was so bright that we could have 

 gone in anywhere, and the evening sail was perfect. 



From Stirrup Cay, where we were anchored in the 

 prettiest little bay you can imagine, we steamed close 

 along the Berry Islands and crossed over to Andros to 

 Mastie Point where young Chamberlain 1 has a sisal plan- 

 tation. We fired a gun as we anchored off one of the 

 most beautiful coral reefs I have ever seen, and rowed 

 inside the surf to his wharf, close to which he has built 

 a most comfortable and roomy house of the Nassau 

 pattern. He has two thousand acres in cultivation, 

 but I fancy leads an absolutely isolated life. He has 

 one English assistant — everybody else black as the ace 

 of spades. 



" We arrived at Nassau late last night, having sud- 

 denly given up the last part of our cruise, as the weather 

 looked threatening, and the pilot did not think it pru- 

 dent to anchor off Andros in case a norther came up, 

 as all the appearances indicated." 



The rest of the voyage Agassiz devoted to a trip 

 among the islands to the north of Nassau, and to nu- 

 merous short expeditions from Nassau as a base. In his 

 three months' wanderings in the Bahamas he travelled 

 nearly four thousand five hundred miles in all possible 

 directions, and visited most of the islands. Late in March 

 he left the yacht in Florida and reached Cambridge early 

 in April. 



1 Son of the English statesman. 



