BAHAMAN TRIP 



General Notes 

 By Alice R. Northrop 



During the summer of 1889 Mr. Northrop collected and studied 

 the marine invertebrates of northern waters at Eastport, Me., 

 and Grand Manan, N.B. He was anxious to follow this up with 

 the study of southern forms preparatory to taking a place upon 

 the teaching staff of the newly organized Zoological Department of 

 Columbia University. Owing to the wealth of their marine life, a trip 

 to the Bahama Islands was decided upon, and when we found that 

 their flora was only imperfectly known, it was planned to make a col- 

 lection of the plants also. A leave of absence was secured and over six 

 months were spent on the islands, two on New Providence and the 

 remainder of the time on Andros. The scientific results of the trip, 

 as far as the material has been worked up, are given in the following 

 papers. Below is a brief account of our journeys and such general 

 information as has found no place in the special papers. The follow- 

 ing narrative is compiled almost wholly from my husband's note- 

 books and well shows his keen powers of observation and the pains- 

 taking accuracy of his notes. 



We left New York on Thursday, January 2, 1890, and at dawn on 

 the following Monday the steamer dropped anchor off the city of 

 Nassau. We found it a picturesque place, with white roads bordered 

 on either side by low-roofed houses, often embowered in vines and set 

 in pleasant gardens. ' ' The main thoroughfare and principal business 

 street is Bay Street, running parallel to the water and extending east 

 and west for several miles. A short walk to the west brings us out of 

 the town. The roads and gardens are bordered with walls of coral 

 rock, plastered all over or often on top only. In the parks and gar- 

 dens and planted along the streets are cocoanut-palms, almond trees 

 (Terminalia), with their dark green glossy leaves, Spanish cedars (Cas- 

 uarina), the sand-box tree (Hura), and the silk-cotton tree or ceiba, 



