REPORT 



BY THE 



DIRECTOR OF THE PUBLIC GARDENS AND PLANTATIONS ON THE CAYMAN 



ISLANDS. 



;> ♦»♦ < 



Botanical Department, Gordon Town P.O., Jamaica, 22nd December, 1888. 



Sir, 



I have the honour to forward the following Report of a visit of a few days to the Cayman 

 Islands, during last May. 



2. The Cayman Islands, consisting of Grand Cayman, Little Cayman, and Cayman Brae are 

 situated about LSO miles to the north-west of Jamaica, and perhaps the same distance south of the 

 centre of Cuba, that is to say, between the meridians of 79° 44' and 81° 26' W. and the parallels of 19° 

 44' and 19° 46' N. 



3. Grand Cayman is the largest of the group. Its greatest leugth, running east and west, is 

 stated to be 17 miles, but the road which passes along the south coast must be twice as long. It is 4 

 or 5 miles broad at the eastern end, and 7 or 8 at the west end. A large bay, 6 miles across, called the 

 " Sound," cuts into the land on the north side, so that the western portion of the island is a narrow slip 

 from half to one mile broad. The island is low, and surrounded by coral reefs. The " Handbook of 

 Jamaica" states that " the coast is in some parts bold and rock-bound, but with no elevation exceeding 

 150 fett ;" but certainly in the western part of the island, the elevation is nothing like so much. 



4. The beach in all the islands is composed of the debris of coral, the pieces ranging in size from 

 large lumps to fine sand. Within the beach the coral is consolidated into a limestone rock, but the sur- 

 face is very rough and uneven, due probably to the carbonic acid in rain-water acting with different 

 degrees of intensity on the varying character of the rocks. The residue from this chemical action is 

 the red clay which forms the soil. In Cayman Brae, along the west coast, there are cliffs at a short 

 distance ftom the shore 40 or 50 feet high. The character of the islands from a geological point of 

 view appears to be similar to that of the formation known as the il white limestone" in Jamaica. 



5. In Grand Cayman, subterranean caves occur ; one was pointed out to me not far from the road 

 on the south coast. There is a gentle slope down to the level of the water at the mouth, so that it is 

 very useful as a natural reservoir for watering cattle. The cave takes a sudden turn, so that I could not 

 determine whether it is of large dimensions. There is another cave at Bodden Town, which I was 

 told was very much larger, but there was no time to visit it ; the " Jamaica Handbook" says that it 

 *' extends some hundreds of yards under the sea." Another curiosity mentioned in the Handbook is " a 

 natural cistern of unknown depth, containing clear sweet spring waier, at East End. This cistern mea- 

 sures about 50 feet across and is siiuated in the middle of a cliff of solid flint rock." 



6. There are large phosphatic deposits in Grand Cayman and Cayman Brae. A Jamaican Firm is 

 exporting from the former island, but the deposit on Cayman Brae is not at present worked. Phospates 

 are so culled, because they are combinations of phosphoric acid with other bodies such as calcium and 

 aluminium. They are very important in agriculture from their use as manures to supply the amount 

 extracted from the soil by growing crops ; for instance, it is calculated that wheat removes from the soil 

 23fli5s. of pusphoric acid per acre, and beans 29tr}s. Most phosphates must be mixel with about two- 

 thirds of their weight of sulphuric acid to render them soluble and capable of being absorbed by the 

 roots of plants ; but the great advantage of the Cayman phosphate is that this operation is uot necessary, 

 as it is already sufficiently soluble for use as manure. Some phosphatic deposits are accumulations of 

 phosphatized fossil remains, but no fossils have been found in the Cayman phosphates. A tooth of an 

 ox was given to me, found at a depth of 20 feet in the phosphate, but I have no doubt that its presence 

 there was due to some accidental cause. Other deposits are the altered excrement of animals. Sawkins 

 in the Appendix to the " Geology of Jamaica" refers to the phosphates of the island Sombrero as fol- 

 lows: — " From my observations on this island I feel fully convinced the deposit of phosphoric acid in 

 the pores and cavities of this rock is due to a percolation of the sea water rather than from the guano of 

 birds. The finer tissues of the corals are found saturated with phosphate, as are the bones of the turtle 

 also without the slightest alteration in form. The casts of shells are covered with a thin film or coating 

 of phosphate. The druses in the coralline portions are often crystallized with " Sombrerite," the nacre- 

 ous part of the shells are dissolved out and partially filled with a thin coating of phosphate. Mr. Bowrey, 

 Island Chemist, has analysed the Cayman phosphates, and has been kind enough to give me the following 

 notes : — 



" The Phosphate rock of the Cayman Islands varies much in the proportion of phosphate of lime 

 it contains. Picked samples may be nearly pure phosphate of lime, on the commercial sale rock can 

 be obtained with from 60 to 80 cent, of phosphate of lime. From these high percentages the proportion 

 of phosphate varies down to vanishing point, as it decreases, the quantity of carbonate of lime, or red 

 clay, or of both, increases. 



