8 PREFACE, 
the soil, he trusts his book will not only minister to the pleasure but be of 
some practical value to those of his fellow citizens who, for any reason, desire 
to avoid the severity of the weather at the north during the winter and early 
spring months. It is but a chance seedling, but valuable fruit is sometimes 
found upon trees by the wayside and in hedge-rows which no professional 
pomologist has planted. If in the fruit gardens of literature the Istzs oF 
Summer shall take root and flourish in the warm sun of popular favor, its 
author will be gratified; and he believes he will not be greatly troubled should 
it be consigned as rubbish to the brush-heap— 
‘For he wrote not for moncy, nor for praise, 
Nor to be called a wit, nor to wear bays." 
: He seems to himself not so much an actor as a spectator having little inter. 
est in the result. The freedom of his will has in this matter, to a large de- 
gree, been dominated and controlled by circumstances. The movements of 
the pen which recorded his thoughts seem like yeaterday’s heart-beats—they 
left go little impression upon mind and memory. 
Seven of the wood cut illustrations in this book, being those which in the 
table of illustrations are numbered respectively 4, 5, 7, 10, 11, 13 and 14, are 
by permission of C. H. Mallory and Company of New York, the proprietors 
of the steamship line now running between New York, Nassau and Matanzas, 
copied from an illustrated pamphlet which they have printed for the benefit 
of the patrons of their line. The other wood engravings have been made for 
this work and are with two exceptions from photographs taken in Nassau by 
_Mr. J. F. Coonley of New York. The lithographic plates are from drawings 
- made by Mr. J. H. Emerton of New Haven, and are mostly from specimens 
which the author’s wife collected in the Bahamas. The author takes pleasure 
in acknowledging his indebtedness to Prof. A. E. Verrill, of the Sheffield 
Scientific School, for valuable suggestions and for the scientific names of the 
specimens in natural history pictured upon the lithographic plates 
Iveston, near New Haven, Ct. 
December 18, A. D., 1880. 
