402 



The National Geographic Magazine 



Just as the tropical sun was sinking, 

 the Physalia crossed the crimson sheen 

 and dropped anchor off the pretty little 

 sand beach mortised in between black 

 and jagged battlements of seolian rock, 

 which in broken masses circled the rest 

 of the island. Quickly a large Cask of 

 water and a box of provisions were sent 

 ashore for use, in case we were marooned 

 by the forced withdrawal of the yacht 

 under stress of weather, and later disem- 

 barking with our cameras, we landed for 

 a three days' visit. A shelter for the 

 night was made from an old sail sup- 

 ported by our tripods, and then Dr 

 Mayer returned to the rolling vessel with 

 a calm and satisfied demeanor, while we 

 secretly rejoiced at having solid ground 

 beneath our blankets, hard as it was. 



In the fading light Mr Chapman and I 

 stood by the little tent, gazing with curi- 

 osity and pleasure upon thousands of 

 dark-colored boobies, who in stolid 

 silence stood upright on either side of 

 their single white-plumaged young, many 

 of them not ten feet away from the edge 

 of the tent, while still farther away we 

 could see the circling man-o'-war birds 

 descending for the night to nests scat- 

 tered throughout a low thicket, composed 

 of sea-grape bushes and spiny cactus. At 

 sunrisewe were up, and before attempt- 

 ing breakfast made a hasty trip to the 

 higher part of the island and with field- 

 glasses carefully studied the birds, map- 

 ping out our plan of action. 



Our investigation then and later 

 showed the island to be about thirty acres 

 in extent and containing more than 4,000 

 ground-nesting boobies and five or six 

 hundred man-o'-war birds in the sea- 

 grape thicket, each colony in the midst 

 of its nesting season. The pictures and 

 subjoined text will tell without further 

 words just what the camera saw, though 

 the remarkable fact may be stated that 

 while the booby nests usually contained 

 two eggs, we were unable to find more 

 than one pair of young in any of the 

 hundreds of nests examined — due, as 

 we discovered, to the peculiar fact that 

 there was a difference of at least ten days 

 in the incubating eggs, and that therefore 

 the first young hatched would alone sur- 



vive. The man-o'-war birds, on the other 

 hand, lay one egg and, unlike the boobies, 

 the nests are placed far back in the almost 

 impenetrable jungle of cactus. 



Several times the Physalia changed its 

 anchorage, as heavy winds came on and 

 on one night in particular we were much 

 alarmed when in the midst of a violent 

 thunder-storm the lights upon the Phy- 

 salia disappeared, occasioned, as we dis- 

 covered on the next day, by the violent 

 rocking of the vessel. At the end of the 

 third day our work was done, including 

 the taking and preparation by Mr Chap- 

 man of a splendid group of both variety 

 of birds for the American Museum of 

 Natural History ; and then began the 

 slow journey back to Nassau. Delays 

 were numerous, but none were serious 

 until the night of April 16, when for the 

 only time, aside from the night 'of the 

 hurricane, we attempted a several hours' 

 run with a fair wind and a full moon, in 

 order to reach Nassau next day if pos- 

 sible, where and when the last steamer of 

 the season left for Miami. At 11 p. m. 

 the yacht suddenly stopped, the masts 

 shook violently, the sails flapped, and be- 

 hold — we were upon a reef, at high tide, 

 a mile out of our course, through the 

 treacherous currents of^ these broken 

 waters. 



At daybreak, when the tide was low, 

 we found ourselves perched on a sand 

 bar in six inches of water, with a deep 

 channel on either side. The wind re- 

 mained light and with a large island a 

 mile to the east the boat alone was in 

 danger should the wind increase. Here 

 we remained three days, working like 

 beavers at the windlass in an effort to 

 drag the yacht into deep water, but not 

 until the boat was stripped of all her bal- 

 last, provisions, anchors, etc., did we suc- 

 ceed in getting her off, in high water, at 

 midnight of the third day ; and, as an ex- 

 ample of our former good luck, it may be 

 stated that the bar we struck lay just ten 

 miles south of where we began the all- 

 night run on the night of April 1st. The 

 next day we reached Nassau, too late, of 

 course, for the Miami boat, and were 

 compelled to return by water to New 

 York on a Ward line steamer. 



