268 PLANTS, SEEDS, AND CURRENTS 



formation that had been broken up by the waves. The growth of 

 coral and the heaping up of reef debris led to the development of 

 extensive sandy flats which reconnected the islands and enclosed the 

 lagoons. The reclaiming agency of the mangroves regained large 

 loamy tracts at the borders of the lagoons ; whilst the sandy tracts 

 were ever increasing by accretion through the materials heaped up 

 by the waves. One of these methods of reclamation is well displayed 

 at the southern end of the island, which, according to the residents, 

 has extended considerably in recent years through the formation of 

 successive lines of sandbanks. It is strange that the significance of 

 the great recovery of land from the sea that is involved in the 

 building-up of Grand Turk did not present itself to A. Agassiz, 

 since he states that whilst the eastern border of the island is formed 

 by " a narrow ridge of seolian hills," the breadth of the island in its 

 centre consists of " flats " formed by the recent growth of shore 

 coral-rock Indeed, everything that is of importance to man on 

 Grand Turk, and particularly its salt-pan industry, is due to the fact 

 that it has been largely reclaimed from the sea. 



A word may be said about the two lagoons of Grand Turk. The 

 South Creek was doubtless originally far more patent than it is at 

 present. It is covered during the higher part of the tide; but at 

 low-water it is exposed, and extensive mud-flats monopolise its 

 area. Salt-rakers have been busy here for over two centuries, and 

 have evidently largely transformed this part of the interior of the 

 island. It is likely that the " salinas " or salt-ponds represent the 

 original extension of the South Creek into the centre of the length 

 of Grand Turk. The North Creek is a clear sheet of water about 

 one and three-quarter miles long and 600 to 700 yards broad. It is 

 credited with a depth of four fathoms in the Admiralty chart, and 

 is now nearly silted up at its mouth. These matters are also referred 

 to in the remarks on the topography of the island in Chapter XII. 

 The delineation of the two creeks in the Admiralty chart (No. 1441), 

 which dates back to 1830 and 1845, is puzzling. The details of the 

 interior of the island are given in a large-scale map (three inches to 

 a mile) based on a survey executed in 1902-4 by J. F. Osborn (Colonial 

 Surveyor) and on the Admiralty chart just mentioned. The depths 

 of the sea around, that are given in this map, are merely taken from 

 the soundings in the chart. 



Salt Cay reproduces all the features of Grand Turk, and it has had 

 the same history Though about three miles in length and about 

 one and a half miles in breadth, its surface is for the most part 

 elevated only a few feet above the sea, the low ridges and hummocks 

 of seolian sandstone, that rise in places to heights of sixty feet, having 

 served as " nuclei " for the growth of extensive low flats of coral and 

 reef debris. Here also there were lagoons communicating with the 

 sea, their shores lined by mangroves that have been almost entirely 

 cleared by the labours of the salt-rakers, who, in making their 

 " salinas," have transformed the interior of the island. Apart from 

 the salt-ponds and the shallow ponds scattered about, a large creek, 

 still communicating with the sea on the south-east coast and bor- 

 dered in 1911 in one or two places by mangroves, recalls the original 



