. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College. Zoology. AGASSIZ: BAHAMAS, 49 has been formed which connects all these islets together, leaving only such entrances as Conch Cut, Wide Opening, and Wax Cay Cut for the passage of craft of shallow draft. The light green color of the bank. WATER-WORN ISLET, CONCH CUT. connecting the islands indicates very markedly its position as contrasted with the deeper waters of the passages and of the outer sea edge of the bank. The larger cays are flanked on the western face by white sand beaches, formed by the rapid disintegration of that
. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College. Zoology. AGASSIZ: BAHAMAS, 49 has been formed which connects all these islets together, leaving only such entrances as Conch Cut, Wide Opening, and Wax Cay Cut for the passage of craft of shallow draft. The light green color of the bank. WATER-WORN ISLET, CONCH CUT. connecting the islands indicates very markedly its position as contrasted with the deeper waters of the passages and of the outer sea edge of the bank. The larger cays are flanked on the western face by white sand beaches, formed by the rapid disintegration of that side of the cays. All the way across the bank, from Conch Cut to Green Cay, we found but little life upon the bottom ; there were no patches of weeds or of Gor- gonians, the bottom being everywhere composed of coarse seolian sand. But when about two to three miles ofl' Green Cay, patches of coral heads and of Gorgonians begin to appear, and become more numerous as we approach the western edge of the bank forming the eastern side of the Tongue of the Ocean. The absence of animal and vegetable life upon the bottom of the interior of the banks is undoubtedly due to the con- stant shifting of the coral sand from the action of the sea. At moderate depths of one to three fathoms we could everywhere see that action plainly indicated by the presence of ripple marks. In the shallower parts of the banks this action forms great sand bores, which, exposed to the action of the winds, also tends to increase them in size in the direc- tion of the prevailing winds. To the eastward of Green Cay we could see such a great sand bore, seven feet high, forming as it were a cay consisting of nothing but a constantly shifting tract. In many on the banks these great sand bores have assumed quite definite posi- tions, whicli they retain, merely shifting north or south or advancing eastward or westward within narrow limits. At our anchorage off Green Cay the bottom consisted of fine hard cor
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Keywords: ., bookauthorha, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectzoology
