Stewart—Botanical Conditions pn the Galapagos Islands . 315 
north side, the northeast side, the northwest side at a point a 
little south of Conway Bay, and on the southeast side. 
Academy Bay . 
Academy Bay is a small body of water, partly surrounded by 
-cliffs, on the south side of the island. It is marked by a small 
islet which lies on the east side of the entrance. Small vessels 
can find good anchorage in this bay but care should be taken in 
anchoring in the western part of it as there are hidden rocks 
present there. This part of the bay is the best protected from 
the southeast swell, so we anchored there on our first visit to 
this place, and were unfortunate enough to get aground on two 
occasions. The best landing place for boats is at the north end 
of the bay where there is a small sand beach, and a low flat area 
covered with bushes and grass, back of which there is an old 
trail leading into the interior. Two springs of brackish water 
occur here, each of which are marked by a bunch of small trees 
of Hibiscus tiliaceus. The country is very rough for a mile 
or more back from the beach and is covered with low ridges of 
lava, many of which run in a direction nearly parallel with the 
coast line. There are also many crevices in this lava, some of 
which are evidently quite deep. The lava has disintegrated but 
little on this part so there is very little soil to be seen on the sur¬ 
face, but nevertheless it is heavily covered with vegetation. 
To the north of the rough area just mentioned, there is a line 
of cliffs, about 75 ft. high, above which the lava is evidently 
much older, as it has broken down in many places into soil, 
through which boulders of lava protrude at intervals. The 
amount of soil increases farther inland, completely covering the 
lava in most places above an elevation of 500 ft. The soil at this 
elevation, and above, is composed largely of vegetable mold 
which has been formed from the decay of the abundant vegeta¬ 
tion in this region. 
Small swamps of Rhizophora Mangle occur at several places 
around the shores of Academy Bay and around a small lagoon 
which empties into it. There are also clumps of Laguncularia 
bushes along the shore, and occasional trees of Avicennia offici¬ 
nalis around salt water pools in the vicinity of the shore. Back 
of the beach, at the north end of the bay, there is a small area 
that is thickly carpeted with Sporobolus virginicus. Thickets 
