BAHAMAN TRIP 



13 



running about after being disturbed carry their abdomens elevated, 

 as scorpions carry their tails. A number of pupas were noticed. 



Tuesday, April 29. Visited the reef this morning. Inside the 

 main reef is a smaller reef of large coral, called ''red coral" here, the 

 same as the large specimens from Rose Island ; some were twelve inches 

 in diameter. These grew thickly together, and their flat spreading 

 branches were very handsome. In some places were masses of dead 

 coral that showed cavities and holes similar to those on shore. The 

 water inside the reef has a depth of two or three fathoms in the deep- 

 est parts, but outside gradually deepens. The main reef is about a 

 quarter of a mile from shore. From half to three-quarters of a mile 

 from shore the depth was found to be from fifteen to eighteen fathoms. 

 At ten fathoms the water was so clear that we found objects on the 

 bottom could be quite plainly seen through a water glass; at eleven to 

 twelve fathoms the bottom could be seen and objects of different color 

 easily distinguished. At fifteen fathoms only the dark and light patches 

 could be made out. We were taken to a hole that proved to be a sandy 

 space about a fathom deeper than the surrounding level. The bottom 

 inside the reef, and outside also, is said by the sailors to be as ''hard 

 as rock." In some places fragments of coral lay on the bottom in the 

 same manner as I have seen them on the land. [Of this Andros reef, 

 Professor Alexander Agassiz, in his " Reconnoissance of the Bahamas 

 and the Elevated Reefs of Cuba in the Steam Yacht Wild Duck,^'' Janu- 

 ary to April, 1893, says, "This reef, though narrow, is one of the finest 

 reefs I have seen, and the patches of corals and Gorgonias which flour- 

 ish between the reef and the shore are not surpassed in beauty by the 

 corals of any district known to me."] 



We had spent six or seven weeks at Nicol's Town collecting plants 

 and birds, and towards the close of April prepared to go on to Conch 

 Sound, four or five miles farther south, where we had made a brief 

 visit a month before. 



Wednesday, April 30. Mr. Keith came for us in his boat, which 

 was soon loaded with our baggage, while we decided to walk. The 

 path for the greater part of the way led through the pine-yard, and 

 here and there through a coppet, until we neared Conch Sound, when 

 it skirted the water until we reached Mr. Keith's house. The evening 

 was beautiful with a clear moonlight night. The " tell-bill-willy " 

 of the willet was almost constantly heard, and there were frequent 



