reef, more than sixty of the most repre-
sentative species of reef fishes were cast



and sketched in color. Specimens were
also preserved in fluid, for reference.
This will make possible the construc-
tion of lifelike reproductions of the
typical fish fauna of a coral reef, with
all its natural coloration.

The younger Mr. Phipps, aided by
his friends, Messrs. Lee Bradley and
Winston Guest, and his younger
brothers, Messrs. Michael and Hubert
Phipps, succeeded in spearing a num-
ber of the larger parrot fishes. Yellow-
tails, trunk fishes and slippery dicks
were taken with hook and line. Mrs.
Miner caught in this waj^ a four-foot
barracuda. The gill net was used for
"passing jacks." Mr. Phipps obtained
hound fishes with a shot gun. The
best success, however, attended the use
of the fish traps. These secured for us
parrot fishes, squirrel fishes, blue, black,
and black and yellow angels, butterfly
fishes, groupers, spotted hinds, nigger
fishes, beau gregorys, blue heads,
striped grunts, red snappers, margate
fishes, and many other species. The
molds and sketche? of all these have
been brought back safely to the Mu-
seum, and will be entirely adequate for
our purpose.

Mr. Jaques also secured a full series
of sketches of the reef surroundings,
including notes on the vegetation and
sky and water effects, to be used in
painting the group background. Those
who have seen the remarkable sky
dome which he painted in the bird haU
of the Museum as a setting for the fly-
ing bird exliibit, anticipate another
notable achievement by him in this new
undertaking.

About one thousand still photo-
graphs were taken in the course of the
Nassau and Andros expeditions. ]\Iore
than half were secured by Mrs. ]\Iiner
and mj'self , while fine series were taken
by Messrs. Olsen, Jaques, Phipps, and



598



NATURAL HISTORY




"blue hole'
gibson cay
Above. — Spearing parrot fish at
the "blue hole," a landlocked pool,
connected with the open sea by a subterranean passage. (Photograph by C.
Below, left, — The rain- and wave-eroded rock of the disintegrating Gitxson Cay:



E. Olsen.)
center, — a



weird corner of the pool; right, — Mrs. Miner holding aloft a fragment of the porous rock



Roy Miner, Jr. These will be of value
not only as assets to the educational
lecture resources of the Museum, but
also as authentic records to assist us in
preparing the new group.

The cays in the neighborhood of the
reef presented features of great interest.
On Gibson Cay, at the entrance of
Middle Bight, are two landlocked and
nearly circular salt-water pools, known
among the natives as "blue holes"
from the color of the water. The
larger is about two hundred yards in
diameter, and the smaller is about half
that dimension. Both are of great



depth and have a subterranean connec-
tion with the lagoon outside, where
similar circular submarine "blue holes '"'
form their outlets. When the tide
rises, the water is sucked in through the
external openings, in each case forming
a whirlpool, and the tide rises in the
pools within the cay. When the tide
ebbs, the opposite phenomenon occurs.
Within the landlocked pools are many
marine fishes, often of large size, which
have found their way in through the
subterranean passages. As the water is
very quiet and transparent, it is
possible to see them as clearly as in an



THE BAHAMAS IN SUNSHINE AND STORM



599



aquarium. A number of our largest
parrot fishes were speared here.

The outlet of the larger hole is on
the north side of the cay, situated in the
midst of a coral bar in shallow water.
At low tide it is possible to walk out
through water about three inches deep,
to the edge of this submarine chasm.
The shallow sea bottom here is com-
pletely carpeted with small living
corals. These are of various beautiful
shades of color and produce a remark-
able effect as seen through the thin
layer of transparent water. At the
edge of the hole we peered down to
unknown depths. As far as we could
see, its sides were lined with magnificent
living corals overhanging the pit with
their rich foliate expansions, the suc-
cessive growths gradually melting into
the blue as the eye failed to penetrate
the watery shadows. The rock of the
entire island is of porous aeolian lime-
stone, and is much disintegrated by
rain and wave erosion. As we walked
over it, we could peer down through a
network of cavities, where rain- or sea-
water pools were visible. In the more
elevated portion of the island the pits
are small, shallow, and on the surface.
Nearer to the shore they become deeper,
and end in spherical cavities. At a still
lower level, these cavities are seen to be
connected with each other, to form
larger, but still miniature caverns, or
continuous chambers, the former parti-
tions of which have dwindled to pillar-
Hke supports. When the region of
wave erosion at the water's edge is
reached, the roofs of these caverns
have collapsed and washed away, leav-
mg the irregular and grotesquely
shaped pillars tapering upward to
terminate in sharp pinnacles. It is
evident that the hmestone is eroded by
acid rain water which pits the rock and,
as time goes on, deepens the cavities.



enlarging t liciii (ill I licy unite with each
other to t'oini conl iinious caverns,
to ])e finally unroofcnl by the assaults
of the dashing surf. The cays were
doubtless once much higher, but are
now in the last stages of disintergration.
Ai)parcntly the same process has taken
place on the mainland of Andros with
modifications, and in combination
with wholesale subsidence of the land
mass, as shown by its maze of inter-
secting waterways.

During these days life on the reef was
very pleasant. Except for occasional
rain squalls, the weather was delightful.
The trade winds continually blowing
from the east counteracted the effect
of the burning July sun, and it was
hard to realize that in New York, so
many degrees farther north, the streets
were sizzling in heat. The tropical sea
was almost unbelievably blue, and the
shallows in the lagoon here and there
showed broad bands of brilliant emer-
ald, of a hue impossible to find in any
artist's color box. The trade wind
clouds heaped themselves into huge bil-
lowy towers, at times reaching almost
to the zenith, dazzling white against
the blue dome of the heavens. Every
evening the sun sank in a blaze of gold
and scarlet, flecked with burnished
cloudlets. Sometimes the cloud towers
were silhouetted against the sun in
dark finger-like masses, edged with
silver. These divided the sunlight
into great rays that shot their fan-like
radiance up into the zenith, beyond
which they converged once more in
the extreme east, producing a huge
banded arch across the entire sky.
Mr. Jaques succeeded in recording
some of the most remarkable cloud
effects by means of a camera equipped
with a ray filter. For two weeks our
work was carried on in a tropical
paradise.




CLOUD FORMATIONS IX THE BAHAMAS
The towering cumulo-stratus clouds are characteristic of this region of trade winds. They are
often piled in snowy white masses reaching nearly to the zenith, their bases flattened out into
stratus formations where thej^ rest on denser layers of air near the sea. At sunset they are illu-
minated in colors of almost unbelievable splendor. (Photographs by F. L. Jaques.)



600



THE BAHAMAS IN SUNSHINE AND STORM



601



THE HURRICANE

On Saturday, July 24, our glass
began to go down. A swell was working
its way in from the Tongue of the
Ocean. The wind was swinging north
of east. That night the moon was at
its full and seemed very large in the
heavens, across which light-flecked
clouds were scudding. The tide was
unusually high and, completelj^ burying
the reefs, covered the entire beach on
the lee side of Little Golding Cay. The
thirty-foot launch "Barbara" was
tugging at her anchor not far from the
beach. The next morning, Sunday,
was clear, but a strong wind was blow-
ing from the northeast. Nevertheless
Olsen went ashore on Andros in one of
the launches to do some collecting.
The launch was to pick him up later
in the day at Mangrove Cay, not far
from Commissioner Forsyth's resi-
dency. As the glass continued to fall
and the wind became stronger. Captain
Nelson decided we were in for a north-
east gale and determined to ride it out.
We already had two anchors with heavy
chain cables out forward. We had be-
gun to strain at these, so he lowered a
third anchor attached to an inch-and-a-
quarter rope hawser. This hooked
deeply into the sandy bottom, and the
Captain confidently asserted om- ability
to ride out any storm that night.

About three in the afternoon the
launch arrived with Commissioner
Forsyth aboard. He at once hurried
to the captain's cabin and, after a short
conference, the latter appeared and in-
formed us that a West Indian hurricane
was sweeping toward us and was due to
arrive at any moment. Mr. Forsyth
had received the information from a
native fishing boat, which had been
sent over from Nassau for that purpose,
as we had no telegraphic or wireless
communication. Since our anchorage



was ])ra('tical!y in the storm's path, it
would lie impossible for us to hold on
wli(M(^ we were. The Commissioner
advised us to get up our anchors at
once, and he would endeavor to pilot
us to a place where we would be reason-
ably safe if the storm did not strike too
far in shore . We immediately set about
this and at the same time sent a launch
over to Little Golding Cay, to get the
younger Mr. Phipps and several others
of the party who had landed there
earlier in the afternoon. Mr. Phipps,
Sr., with his family and guests, had re-
turned to Miami in the "lolanthe"
the week before, so that we had to
depend entirely on the "Seminole"
and her subsidiary boats. About this
time Olsen was seen approaching from
the mainland of Andros, tossing about
in a native sailboat. Our launch
picked him up. He had heard on shore
about the approaching storm and had
decided to come out and warn us with-
out waiting for us to send for him.
Meanwhile we had started our donkey
engine to raise our anchors, but, to our
chagrin, found that their chain cables
were twisted about each other and were
badly fouled. We had to lower a
couple of sailors over the bow in rope-
slings to disentangle them. This was a
difficult task as the sea was now running
very high and waves were continually
washing over the men as they desperate-
ly struggled with the refractory chain
loops. It took two hours to get the
chains free, and then the engine was
started once more to haul them in,
only to break down. So all hands had
to get to work and raise the heavy
anchors by man-power. By this time
the angr}^ sea was high above the outer
reef, which thus offered no protection,
and huge waves were rushing upon us in
swift succession. The wind was blow-
ing a gale, and the vessel was tugging



602



NATURAL HISTORY



and straining at the single rope hawser
which was now left. Meanwhile we
found she had ])cen dragging in a direct
line toward the rocks of Goat Cay, a
half mile to leeward. With our power-
ful gasoline motors going full speed, we
managed to head about before the
wind, and then cut our cable with a
couple of axe-blows. We were none too
soon, for we just missed the rocky
shallows of Goat Cay, as we headed
in toward Middle Bight entrance.

These so-called bights are really
straits that run entirely through
Andros Island to the west shore, and
divide it into four parts. We suc-
ceeded in penetrating the strait for ten
miles and anchored behind a projecting
point in comparative safety. The
storm continued to increase all night
and was at its worst about four in the
morning. At daybreak we looked back
toward our old anchorage and saw con-
tinuous processions of black cloud
masses flecked with white, marching
swiftly up the Tongue of the Ocean in
the direction of Nassau. All about us
the tossing water of the Bight was as
white as milk, due to the soft, calcare-
ous mud which had drifted through
from the sponge banks on the western
shore of Andros. During the night the
wind had shifted counter-clockwise
from the northeast and was now blow-
ing from the south and southeast. We
were forced to remain in our sheltered
position for three days, when the storm
had abated sufficiently to permit us to
make our way out to the Bight en-
trance, near Gibson Cay.

That morning an American coast-
guard cutter came down the Tongue of
the Ocean looking for us. She had been
sent from Miami at the request of Mr.
John S. Phipps, who had been greatly
concerned about us. She had Captain
Lind of the "lolanthe" aboard as



guide and pilot. We now learned that
the wireless towers of Nassau were
down, leaving her with no communica-
tion with the world, and that consider-
able damage had been done at Palm
Beach. This was the first of the series
of hurricanes that have so devastated
the West Indian region during the past
few months, and was totally unex-
pected, as they are seldom known to
occur before August or September. We
sent telegrams back by the cutter to
inform the Museum and our families of
our safety, and she started back to
Miami. She had not been gone long
when we heard a familiar humming in
the air, and, looking up, discovered
that a hydroplane was approaching
from the northwest. When it was im-
mediately over us it planed down, and,
alighting on the water, taxied up to us.

''Is this the house-boat "Seminole"?

''It is."

"Is everybody safe"?

"We are."

"Well, Mr. Phipps is worried about
you."

Apparently the hurricane at Palm
Beach had been so severe that Mr.
Phipps felt it necessary to take every
means to learn of our safety at the
earliest possible moment. As a matter
of fact, we had come through with no
casualties except that our largest
launch, the "Barbara," had been
driven ashore, her keel torn off and her
propeller bent. During the next few
days, however, she was overhauled
by the captain and crew, and put into
as good repair as possible.

Now that the hurricane was over, we
returned to our work on the reefs. We
had already accomplished practically
all that we had set out to do. Our series
of sketches and molds was nearly com-
plete, and we had taken many photo-
graphs. We had not, however, accom-



THE BAHAMAS IN SUNSHINE AND STORM



603




^'ICiw- "




The hurricane of July 25 wrought great damage in Nassau. Trees were uprooted, houses
blown down, and fields laid waste. Two later hurricanes completed the destruction



plished the diving that we had planned
and for which we had come equipped
with diving hoods. We now found that
the white mud or marl, from the west
shore of Andros had been driven com-
pletely through the Bight to the lagoon
at the eastern entrance, and had so
clouded the water that diving was out
of the question, and even the fish would
not bite. After a day or two the mud
had settled and we resumed our fish-
ing, obtaining a number of species that
we were still anxious to get. The sea
was still somewhat rough and it was
not until toward the end of our stay
that conditions were favorable for sub-
marine work. Nevertheless, Mr. Phipps,
Jr., Mr. Olsen, and Mr. Lee Bradley,
as well as myself, managed to do some
diving during the last three days.
In the meantime Mr. Phipps, Sr., had
returned with the "lolanthe," and
on the morning of August fourth, that
boat was detailed to take Mrs. Miner,



my son and myself back to Nassau, that
we might obtain pictures for the Mu-
seum showing the damage wrought by
the hurricane. The swift "lolanthe"
made the passage of sixty-five miles in
five hours, and we were in Nassau by
breakfast time. After landing us, the
vessel immediately put back to Middle
Bight and escorted the "Seminole" to
Miami, stopping at Bimini on the way.
When our section of the party
reached New Providence, we were
amazed at the change that had been
wrought by the hurricane. The whole
island appeared to have been swept by
a blight. Nearly every tree had been
either stripped bare of foliage or the
leaves were drj^ and withered, due to
the suction of the terrific winds.
Scores of trees were uprooted, or stood
grotesquely maimed, with torn stumps
where leafy branches had been. In
Nassau, masonry churches were com-
pletely demolished or unroofed, many



604



NATURAL HISTORY



of the frame dwellings reduced to
kindling wood, steel telephone poles
bent double as if made of tin, and every
tree on the Parade laid prostrate.
Many of them were centuries old, and
had withstood countless storms. The
water front was strewn with wrecked
vessels, while at least forty others,
including many of the sponge fleet from
the outer islands, were blown out to sea
through the harbor entrance and were
never heard from again. Fortunately
there was no loss of life on land, but
many crews of the vessels must have
been drowned. Four bodies drifted
ashore within the harbor. The wharves
and buildings along the waterfront
suffered severely. One large storehouse
for liquors, built of concrete blocks and
elaborately ornamented with columns
of masonry, was completely demolished
by the force of the wind, scarcely one
block being left standing on another.
Many houses escaped miraculously,
while others immediately adjoining
were ^destroyed or at least unroofed.
The damage had been largely confined
to the path of the storm and the more



substantial buildings everywhere re-
mained comparatively unscathed. The
beautiful flowering vines and shrubs
and blooming gardens that so attracted
our attention a few weeks previously,
were masses of tangled wreckage, while
royal palms had lost their graceful
tops and now stood with one or two
bedraggled plumes, like roosters after a
cockfight.

The people of Nassau, however, were
calm and cheerful and went about the
business of repair with undaunted
spirit. They were as cordial and hos-
pitable as ever and related their
experiences and narrow escapes with
evident thankfulness that the event
was no worse, though it was every-
where agreed that it was the most
terrific hurricane since that which laid
waste the island in 1866.

We spent ten days photographing
scenes of damage, and on August 15
sailed for New York with all the objects
of our trip accomplished and our
minds filled with memories of storm
and sunshine in tropic seas that we
shall not soon forget.




The houseboat yacht, "Seminole," the floating headquarters of the expedition



Scenes in the Isles of June

PHOTOGRAPHS BY EUNICE THOMAS MINER

.111(1 other members of tlie American Museum'' I'ixpedition to the Bahamas, 1920




A HUMBLE HOME IN THE TROPICS
Many of the natives Hvc in small houses of coral limestone, thatched with palmetto and embowered in
tropical vegetation. They are often surrounded by small plantations of bananas, coconuts, and alligator pears.
Where the soil is not too stony, it yields a variety of vegetables. Photograph by Sands, Nassau




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Diving on the Andros reef. Upper left, — Captain Nelson placing a diving helmet on Mr. Olsen's shoulders.
Upper right, — the diver descending. Photographed by John H. Phipps. Below, — the sea bottom with growths
of living coral. This picture was taken through the Williamson tube during the expedition of 1924




Mr. Jaques sketching iu color a recently caught butterfly fish {Chxtodon striatum). These little fishes,
fluttering among the corals, readily suggest their terrestrial namesakes




Mr. Jaques making sketches for the background of
the new coral reef group for the Museum's Hall of
Ocean Life. Goat Cay on the \ndros Reef



Mr. John H. Phipps mending a gill net after a catch
of passing jacks (Caranx chrysos) . These fishes formed
a welcome addition to the expeditionary larder




street bcerie in Nassau.— Halfway down the hil) a Poinciana spread clusters of scarlet, while, rising from its
midst, a royal palm pierced the tropic sky




A quaint side street dominated by the tower of the cathedral




SCENES IN NASSAU AFTER THE HURRICANE
Above, — steel telephone poles bent like paper. Center, left, — St. Ann's church with spire and roof blown
away. Center right,— a native church completely demolished and even the altar broken. Below,— a study in
topsy-turvydom




Photograph by F. L. Jaques
The "lolanthe," floating in the evening light. A Bahaman sunset baffles description




In Jane Gale's Cavern. Tliis remarkable cave has been eroded by the sea in the cliffs at the West End of
Nassau, cutting through successive petrified beaches \vith shells of sea animals imbedded in the rook formation




The S. S. "Victoria,"— Akutan Island. Photograph by M. L. Thompson



Impressions of Alaska, — Where East and
West Approximate



By J. T. NICHOLS

Associate Curator of Recent Fishes



ALASKA, or more particularly
the Bering Sea area, is a region
in contact with notable seasonal
migrations of fishes and whales by sea
and of birds by air. It is an area which
has been significant in dispersal migra-
tions of the past, lying as it does be-
tween the faunae of two great con-
tinents, Asia and America, and also, in
a way, between those of two great
oceans. North Pacific and North
Atlantic across the Arctic basin. It
was with this in mind during the past
summer that the writer spent a month
or two of I'elaxation from Museum
laboratory and Hbrary work in a gen-
eral reconnaissance of northwestern
waters and shores.

North and west of the state of
Washington there are two routes of
travel: one may either strike out to
sea or follow the deep sounds and



channels of theBritish Columbia coast.
This latter is very reminiscent of the
rugged rocky shore of Maine, only on a
larger scale. There are no valleys to
speak of, save the one intricate many-
armed valley now occupied by the
sea. The land consists of hilltops, for
the most part clothed with an evergreen
forest. Except under the actual
shadow of the trees almost everywhere
naked rock is in view. This is not in
weathered outcrops but in solid masses,
seemingly planed smooth and into
straight or rounded outlines by some
gigantic glaciers of the past. Beyond
superimposing the forest upon this
terrain, the heavy precipitation of the
present day has altered it but little.
The scenery almost everywhere is fine,
often of striking grandeur. When at
sundown, the breeze is hushed, and the
nearer and more distant hills of vari-

605



606



NATURAL HISTORY



ous shades of turquoise blue are re-
flected in the mirrored surface of the
water, here and there broken by a
streak of silver in the wake of some
swimming guillemot, the scene is one of
surpassing beauty. It is so still that



glaciers which chng high on a moun-
tain-side, and great glaciers which
sweep down to the sea to form a wall of
ice across the heads of one or several
narrow fjord-hke bays. But there are
small mountains and large mountains,




^V** ■•■(♦.;'i - ^^fcl^^ •♦^MM^T*:?*




*#'



An Aleutian Island shore, where the dull grayish song sparrow is almost as large as a
towhee; and one of the ordinarily alpine rosy finches feeds on the sea beach. Photograph
by M. L. Thompson



one can hear the patter of the birds'
feet on the water as they rise.

Thus one comes to the southeastern
boundary of Alaska, that American ter-
ritory of land and sea which stretches
away to the northwest until it all
but touches the old world of Asia.
At once one seems to notice a change in
the character of the land. The Rocky
Mountain system which, in higher
latitudes, has been edging west, seems
now to be actually looking out across
the great ocean. There are mountains
and groups of mountains, close to the
shore Une or rising faintly against
the sky above their foothills in-
land. There are naked rocky smnmits
broken by frost and scoured by ava-
lanche, long slopes and valleys, little



those that seem rugged and new beside
others seemingly softened by the
touch of time and erosion. In fact the
variety is such that out of simple,
even conventional units is built up a
confusion impossible for a casual
observer to reduce to any system. Still
farther northward, and stretching away
to the west in the Alaskan Peninsula