20 



BAHAMAN TRIP 



a shallow bay or estuary two or three miles wide. We reached the 

 point about five o'clock. The sun was just setting back of the white 

 chalky beach which was fringed with an unbroken line of palmettoes; 

 here and there was a mangrove clump, and beyond, nothing but water 

 and sky. A desolate scene with no sign of life anywhere. 



Thursday, June 17. Walked back from Purser Point. The whole 

 shore deposit is much whiter than at Red Bays. In some places along 

 shore the white mud has been washed by the ripples so as to resemble 

 miniature cliffs. These were made very noticeable by the dense blue 

 shadows. In places the water had washed out the foraminifera and 

 left them here and there, in little masses along the water line. The 

 deposit is very soft. I ran a pole into it nine feet at a distance of a mile 

 and a half from shore, where, nevertheless, the water was only about 

 eighteen inches deep. Birds were plentiful. We saw many flamingoes, 

 some summer ducks, long-shanks, night-hawks, and herons. There 

 were many ponds where the water was about a foot and a half deep. 

 Returned to the boat and about three o'clock started up Wide Open- 

 ing, proceeded about a mile. Spent the night in the rowboat. The 

 mosquitoes innumerable. 



Wednesday, June 18. Sailed up as far as possible, but we grounded 

 opposite the narrow channel marked on one of the charts as the River 

 Lees which connects Wide Opening with the large body of water 

 known as Turner Sound. It was an unusually dry season, and to our 

 disappointment we found it impossible to cross the bar at the mouth of 

 the channel. Our supply of water was exhausted, so we were obliged 

 to turn back and run down the coast again to what the men called 

 Cabbage Creek, which seems from the chart to be the other entrance 

 to Turner Sound. Anchored for the night about a mile and a half from 

 shore. 



Thursday, June 19. Aground again about a mile and a quarter 

 from shore, took to the skiff, but were soon obliged to leave that also, 

 and finally to drag the boat over the flats to the channel that runs out 

 for about half a mile beyond the mouth of the creek. The creek itself 

 is about half a mile wide at first, but soon narrows to about seventy-five 

 yards, which width it retains for a long distance. The water in the 

 center is about ten feet deep and the sides so steep that it is difficult to 

 "set" up it. The shores are fringed with mangroves and palms. The 

 creek is very winding, and the palms always grow on the outside curve, 



