0' to 72deg 50' W., and 22deg 25' to 26deg 40' N. The total land
area is estimated at 5450 sq. m., of which the main islands occupy 4424 sq.
m., and the population was 43,521 in 1881 and 53,735 in 1901. Some 12,000
of these are whites, the remainder coloured. The main islands and groups,
beginning from the north-west, are as follows: Little and Great Abaco, with
Great Bahama to the west; Eleuthera (a name probably corrupted from the
Spanish _Isla de Tierra_), Cat, Watling, or Guanahani, and Rum Cay on the
outer line towards the open ocean, with New Providence, the Exuma chain and
Long Island forming an inner line to the west, and still farther west
Andros (named from Sir Edmund Andros, governor of Massachusetts, &c., at
the close of the 17th century; often spoken of as one island, but actually
divided into several by narrow straits); and finally the Crooked Islands,
Mayaguana and Inagua. The Turks and Caicos islands continue the outer line,
and belong geographically to the archipelago, but not politically. The
surrounding seas are shallow for the most part, but there are three
well-defined channels--the Florida or New Bahama channel, between the
north-western islands and Florida, followed by the Gulf Stream, the
Providence channels (north-east and north-west) from which a depression
known as the Tongue of Ocean extends southward along the east side of
Andros, and the Old Bahama channel, between the archipelago and Cuba. The
Andros islands have a length of 95 m. and an area of 1600 sq. m.; Great
Abaco is 70 m. long and its area is 680 sq. m.; Great Inagua is 34 m. long
with an area of 530 sq. m., [v.03 p.0208] and Grand Bahama 66 m., with an
area of 430 sq. m. But the most important island, as containing the
capital, Nassau, is New Providence, which is only 19-3/8 m. in length, with
an area of 85 sq. m. This island supported a population in 1901 of 12,534.
In point of population the next most important island is Eleuthera (8733),
followed by the Andros Islands (5347) and Cat Island (4658). The Abaco and
Exuma groups and Long Island each support populations exceeding 3000, and
there are smaller populations on Grand Bahama, the Crooked Islands, Inagua,
Mayaguana, Watling, Rum Cay and the Biminis, though these last, which are
two very small north-western islands, are relatively densely populated with
545 persons.

_Physical Geography._--The islands are of coral formation and low-lying.
The rock on the surface is as hard as fl