BAHAMAN TRIP 



17 



the banana holes were more numerous than anywhere we have been. 

 Some of them were twenty-five feet in depth, but the majority only ten 

 to twenty feet deep and perhaps eight to ten feet in diameter. Others 

 again were shallower and only four or five feet across. Many of these 

 holes were lined with drooping fern fronds, the most conspicuous being 

 the maiden-hair (Adiantum tenerum) and the creeping Goniopteris, 

 the latter with fronds often two feet or more in length and rooting at the 

 tip. After a short rest entered the pines again. There was no path 

 beyond this, and we were obliged to cut our way through a dense growth 

 of brake, the fern commonly called "Maypole" here (Pteridium 

 caudatum). It was eight or nine feet in height. The ground was 

 exceedingly rough, and the weather warm. The course thus far has 

 been nearly southwest, and we have gone about four or five miles. The 

 pines here are mostly seven or eight inches in diameter three feet 

 from the ground. Some of them are larger and very tall, eighty feet 

 at least. Passed through a tract covered with what the men call "bed- 

 grass," a species of Andropogon; then through Maypole again. A few 

 palmettoes and cycads begin to appear. The rock is soft, but very 

 jagged. Measured a large pine here and found it to be 4 feet 9 

 inches in circumference, about seventy feet high. A short time after 

 this the pines began to be smaller and smaller, the palmettoes more 

 numerous, the rocks rougher and harder, and banana holes more fre- 

 quent. Now, at one o'clock in the afternoon, the pines are only three 

 or four inches in diameter; keeping on over a very rough piece of 

 ground, we finally see light through the pines. We reach the end of 

 them about two o'clock and look out over a level stretch of ground like 

 a prairie with a coppet on the horizon in the distance, the men say it 

 is mangrove. To the southwest a long point of pines with water 

 showing on this side. The level ground before us is very soft and damp, 

 a sheath-knife does not reach rock. 



Wednesday, May 14. Left camp and started on the return trip 

 a little after nine, reached Mr. Keith's about half-past two. 



Leaving Conch Sound May 22, we next went to Mastic Point, 

 four miles below, where we stayed at Mrs. Bain's, as before. Made 

 several trips to "the big mangrove" three miles below, where I secured 

 a man-of-war bird. Also got a number of other birds and plants not 

 collected before. A number of the days were more or less rainy. After 

 exploring the neighborhood, we secured the Herald again for a month's 

 c 



