From November to May the temperature ranges between 60° and 75° F.; • in the summer months it varies from 75°•to 85°. The climate, though subject to greater extremes of heat and cold than that of other groups in the West Indies, is agreeable and health-giving; and Nassau is a favorite resort for tourists in winter. The population (about 58,175) in cludes a large proportion of negroes, the nat ural increase among the descendants of former sl;.ves being greater than among the descend ants of the white settlers. There is little im migration. Good schools are maintained by the government and by the Church of England. The administration of the islands is conducted by a governor, an executive council, the repre sentative assembly and a legislative council.
°Though the first discovered of the West Indies," wrote Ober, Bahamas were among the last, with a few exceptions, to become per manently settled, and even to-day little is known of the more remote islands, since very few of them are reached by steamers, connection be tween the northern and southern being kept up by sailing vessels only. As they are almost
uniformly level, the highest elevation not ex ceeding 400 feet, they do not display that va ried vegetation to be seen in the Greater and Lesser Antilles, where the mountain-sides are clothed with extensive tropical forests. Still, the Bahama flora embraces more than 100 na tive flowers and a variety of woods useful in the arts and materia medica, besides many de licious fruits known to dwellers in the tropical zone."' Steamers of the Ward Line (New York and Cuba Mail Steamship Company) leave New York every other Friday for Nassau, returning one week later; and during three months (about 1 January to 1 April), a steamer of the Penin sular and Occidental Steamship Company plies weekly between Miami, Fla. and Nassau, Bahamas.
Bibliography.— Aspinall, A. E., 'Pocket Guide to the West Indies' (Chicago and New York 1914) and 'The British West Indies' (London 1912) ; Hill, R. T., 'Cuba and Porto Rico, with the other islands of the West In dies' (New York 1898) ; Ober, F. A., 'Guide to the West Indies' (New York 1908).